If only Everton’s accountants were as good at maths as their supporters, who celebrated this victory to lift their team into the top half of the Premier League, as one quipped on full-time. At least, that is, in a world where they weren’t docked 10 points for naively breaching financial rules.
As it is, they have scrambled from the bottom three for the first time since last month’s sanction, and the bean counters who failed to protect the club will be breathing a sigh of relief.
Sean Dyche, meanwhile, continues to sprinkle his magic beans. This was Everton’s third win in four matches. They would, in that alternative universe, only be six points behind Newcastle.
Another points deduction incoming? Bring it on. If anything, they should get it out of the way while it looks like Dyche and his players have plenty to spare on those at the bottom.
This was the Dogs of War versus the Dogs of Wor, and Newcastle came into it with their tails wagging. Anthony Gordon, on his return to Goodison Park, has been among the country’s most in-form players of late, making the £40million Newcastle invested in January look cheap.
Everton scored three late goals to beat Newcastle and climb out of the bottom three
Dwight McNeil robbed Kieran Trippier before unleashing a powerful drive into the far corner
Former Sunderland player Jordan Pickford revelled in his side’s huge win over Newcastle
But come the end of a bitter night – weather and emotion – Eddie Howe and his Champions League players were licking their wounds. They felt the bark and bite of a resurgent Everton. ‘Anthony Gordon, what’s the score?’ they howled into the cold of the night. ‘Premier League, what’s the score?’ very quickly followed. There is no shortage of motivation for the Toffees right now.
Not that this was a walk in the park. Everton aren’t great at home and Newcastle aren’t great away – one win apiece before this – and so we looked set for a predictable stalemate approaching the final 10 minutes. That was when Everton belatedly found their shooting boots and shot down the visitors, whose wounds were, in large part, self-inflicted. Newcastle had looked the more likely winners in the second half.
Kieran Trippier has not put a foot wrong all season. He was allowed one mistake, perhaps even two or three. So how unfortunate for him that his first three missteps of the entire campaign coughed up all three of Everton’s goals.
First, on 79 minutes, the England defender gifted the ball to Dwight McNeill and the winger ran through to hammer a goal that was beginning to feel unlikely, for either side.
Trippier buried his head in his shirt and it looked like he still had it there when he lost out to Jack Harrison seven minutes later. The wideman pulled back for Abdoulaye Doucoure and the midfielder steered home from 12 yards. Game over, but Trippier’s misery was not. Deep into injury-time and he was guilty of playing Beto onside and the substitute finished low beneath Martin Dubravka. It was a rare night to forget for Trippier, and so too Gordon, despite being his side’s best player.
He was up against Seamus Coleman and Ashley Young in the first half. A combined 73 years charged with shackling the 22-year-old, whose every touch was booed and every miss cheered. After 20 minutes of frustration, the young man escaped the old boys by switching flanks. That helped bring about chances for team-mates Miguel Almiron and Alexander Isak, who both fluffed close-range efforts.
Here was an advert for ugly defending and brutal finishing, at both ends. Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin could not even hit the target from four yards when a game of penalty-box pinball gave him the chance to light up Goodison. It all felt rather dark when he somehow volleyed over.
As one local said as he made for the relative warmth of the concourse on half-time, ‘That was like watching a repeat’.
Trippier lost possession again and Jack Harrison’s cross found Doucoure to side-foot home
Beto sealed an emphatic victory with his first Premier League goal in stoppage time
Trippier endured a night to forget as he was at fault for two of Everton’s three goals at Goodison
But so it was for Newcastle, too. Their only away win remains an 8-0 drubbing of Sheffield United, and Howe admits he is at a loss to explain a run that is threatening their top-four ambitions.
Fatigue is a mitigating factor and, for the fourth game on the spin, the same outfield 10 started. Still, they had more chances in the second half. Gordon robbed James Tarkowksi in the area on the hour but, one-on-one with Jordan Pickford, he shot tamely at the goalkeeper. They laughed their socks, hats, gloves and mittens off in the Park End behind the goal.
This was turning into shooting practice for Gordon – for once, he looked like he needed it – and another effort from range ballooned over. Those misses would come back to haunt him, but it is Trippier who will be suffering the worst of the nightmares. Everton, meanwhile, are in dreamland, even if that is fourth from bottom.
Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin missed a sitter in the first-half against Newcastle
Unmarked Calvert-Lewin blazed over the crossbar from six yards out in the first-half
Anthony Gordon fired straight at the keeper after nicking the ball off James Tarkowski
Alexander Isak wasted Newcastle’s best chance in the first-half when he headed wide
