SOCCER FA PREMIER LEAGUE: Blackburn 0 Everton 0: EVERTON DEFENDER Joleon Lescott was left struggling to work out whether a point in last night goalless draw was a good outcome for the Toffees.
Lescott had one of a small collection of half-chances to break the deadlock in a match which left Rovers in the bottom three of the Premier League and sixth-placed Everton still within striking distance of Arsenal.
“It is a good point away from home for us. But we need to win games like this to get into Europe,” Lescott said.
As for his late opportunity, Lescott was again equivocal.
“I was quite confident going up there, but unfortunately I didn’t hit the target,” he recalled.
The blank scoresheet did not surprise him, however.
“Blackburn are playing well, and we are playing well ourselves. But the defences kept a clean sheet, and it was a stalemate.
“We set our stall out early doors not to concede.”
Both sides were left to rue missed opportunities in a generally dismal affair when real chances were few and far between.
Jason Roberts had the pick of them – a one-on-one run at the goalkeeper he should have buried.
This was certainly no advert for the Premier League for the live TV audience on an evening of general excitement elsewhere, with both managers putting their faith in graft and perspiration rather than craft and inspiration.
Apologists will point to the stakes being so high for both, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
It had all started so promisingly. Jo shook the home side into life after just 14 seconds with a powerful shot that might have troubled stand-in goalkeeper Jason Brown only for a deflection to divert it for a corner.
Rovers hit back with a passage of play where there were three strikes at goal, the most promising by Stephen Warnock, but all were blocked by Everton defenders.
Those incidents apart, the opening half had little going for it.
El Hadji Diouf raised a flutter of excitement in home fans’ hearts when he took Andre Ooijer’s cross on the chest but Lescott stepped in with a powerful clearance, then Roque Santa Cruz broke down the left and produced an exquisite cross that allowed Keith Andrews to take deliberate aim – but a touch too long as his left-footed strike was also blocked out.
It took 38 minutes for either goalkeeper to make a save worthy of note but when it came, courtesy of Brown, it was certainly noteworthy.
Blackburn struggled to clear their lines after Phil Neville had fired in a cross from the left, and the ball came to Steven Pienaar 15 yards out who looked odds on to hand Everton the lead.
The ball was firmly struck and heading into the top corner only for Brown to come to his side’s rescue with an excellent diving save.
Allardyce made a positive change at half-time, sending on Tugay in place of Vince Grella, and soon after Santa Cruz nearly grabbed the lead.
Santa Cruz sent a header from Diouf’s cross over the bar before the two managers had a heated exchange of words after Gael Givet’s aerial challenge on Leon Osman left both players on the floor needing attention.
As it was Givet came off worst having to leave the field with Aaron Mokoena coming on.
BLACKBURN: Brown, Ooijer, Samba, Nelsen, Givet (Mokoena 64), Andrews, Grella (Kerimoglu 46), Warnock, Roque Santa Cruz, Roberts, Diouf (Treacy 88). Subs not used: Bunn, Dunn, McCarthy, Simpson. Booked: Givet.
EVERTON: Howard, Jagielka, Yobo, Lescott, Baines, Osman, Neville, Rodwell (Saha 71), Pienaar, Cahill, Jo (Fellaini 78). Subs not used: Nash, Van der Meyde, Castillo, Jacobsen, Gosling.
Referee: Alan Wiley (Staffordshire).
