WES HOOLAHAN’S SCRUFFY equaliser prevented Everton from gaining on the Premier League’s leading sides as Roberto Martinez’s men were held to a 1-1 draw at Carrow Road on Saturday.
Victory would have taken Everton to within a point of fifth-place Tottenham Hotspur, but after Romelu Lukaku gave them a 15th-minute lead, they squandered a glut of opportunities to extend their advantage.
Hoolahan duly levelled the scores early in the second half, scuffing in from close range to consign Everton to a third consecutive draw and inch Norwich a point clear of the relegation places.
Alex Neil’s side might have emerged with all three points, only for Cameron Jerome to produce a glaring miss with 20 minutes remaining, hoisting the ball over the bar from Hoolahan’s flick.
Gerard Deulofeu signalled Everton’s ambition with an early driving run into the Norwich box and after Lukaku had dragged a shot wide, the Belgium striker put the visitors ahead.
Norwich left-back Martin Olsson’s panicky clearance went straight to Deulofeu and the former Barcelona winger arced a beautiful cross to the back post, where Lukaku charged in to head home.
It was Lukaku’s 15th goal of the season, in all competitions, and made him the first Everton player since Bob Latchford in 1975 to score in seven consecutive games.
With Norwich’s defence all at sea, a second Everton goal seemed a matter of time.
Declan Rudd rushed out to save from Arouna Kone, before Lukaku somehow failed to turn the ball into an open goal from Tom Cleverley’s right-wing cross.
Lukaku also shot narrowly wide twice, while England left-back Leighton Baines, making his first start of the season after a long-term ankle injury, slammed a right-foot shot against the post.
But Martinez’s side — who eliminated Norwich from the League Cup in October — failed to make their dominance count and within seconds of the kick-off in the second half, they were punished.
Ryan Bennett, sent on for Andre Wisdom at half-time, met Robbie Brady’s corner with a header and although Tim Howard parried, Hoolahan was on hand to bundle the ball over the line from close range.
The chances dried up momentarily, Ramiro Funes Mori blocking from Brady at one end, Olsson from Kone at the other, before Jerome wasted a gilt-edged chance to give Norwich victory.
Hoolahan’s clever back-heel presented him with a clear sight of goal, but with the net at his mercy, the former Stoke City striker shanked the ball into the stands from six yards out.
Tell that to limerick, on the cusp of the double
@Ave it: There’s always an exception or two but the normality is complete non-events and a predictable outcome until the later stages of the championship.
@Rochelle: it wouldn’t be like that if we have tiers and open draw and dispensed with the provincial championship or ran provincial at a different time of year
@Ave it: Limerick beat a division 3 team hardly that much of an upset?
Imagine trying to get a ticket with six teams playing on the same day
@Eugene O’ Sullivan: exactly. Terrible idea. Double header of tier 2 and 3 on the Saturday evening and Tier 1 / minor final as tradition on its own the Sunday.
- Abolish Provincial Championships
- Champions League format with seeded draws
- 8 groups of 4
- Teams that finish first and Second play for Sam
- Third team and fourth team play in Bed and C Championships respectively
- All players still get the opportunity to pull off shocks and play for Sam.
- all players have something to play for
- Plus think of how the fixtures being so structured would also allow the club game to flourish.
Think I’ll run for the County council now too
@Séamus Tierney: Probably one of the best ideas, because one of the main complaints along with lack of coverage is that a ‘B’ championship would take away a players chance for a upset or a big day out in Croke Park against a top team. At least with this they get both that and chance of winning some silverware.
@Séamus Tierney: that’s a good idea and Zi used to be for it, but it wouldn’t work because you can pretty much pick which 16 teams will qualify with 1 or 2 surprises. 2/3 of the marches would be drubbings that will attract no public interest and the 1 decent game really a dead rubber as both teams guaranteed 2 wins from the other matches.
@Séamus Tierney: that’s a good idea and I used to be for it, but it wouldn’t work because you can pretty much pick which 16 teams will qualify with 1 or 2 surprises. 2/3 of the matches would be drubbings/hammerings that will attract no public interest and the 1 decent game really a dead rubber as both teams guaranteed 2 wins from the other matches.
@Séamus Tierney: still the same amount of hammerings in champions league format
All they need to do is reduce the size of the ball to little more than tennis ball size and let them bring sticks onto the pitch to hit the reduced size ball, problem solved.
@Dino: nice idea but I could see this becoming a niche product, played by an elite few counties and generally ignored by everyone else.
@Etherman: As opposed to the big ball game we have ATM played by one ‘elite’ county and where everyone yearns after the competitiveness of the niche product??
The league is a far better competition. Can we not just swap them around and play the championship in the spring?
@Brian Dunne: what???
@Brian Dunne: the league is very competitive, but it’s not the competition teams really want to win. The Kerry manager said all throughout the league that they weren’t interested in winning it. He got his wish in the end.
@Stephen Walsh: yea but if it was the championship they would
Works for the ladies also as TG4 cover all grades. RTE who pay Brolly are part of the problem zero coverage of lower profile games .
Intercounty League starts 1st Jan. Champions league format starting in April. Finished by end of June All Ireland final. Players back to the clubs by mid July. Then county finals played worse case end of Sept. Solved both Hurling and football in 261 characters.
There is no perfect format. A champions league type group system or an NFL type fixture competition would work best in my opinion. Teams can come against opposition of all levels and benefit from each. Eliminated teams can go into a second tier competition. Every team would play at least 4 games at a minimum. Season tickets & game planning could also be organised well in advance.