Bent blows hot to keep Everton in touch with wonderland

Everton 1 - Aston Villa 1

If there is anything more mind-boggling than Everton reaching third place in the Premiership, it is that they are taking residence. It is now six weeks since they emerged at the head of the pack chasing Arsenal and Chelsea and, despite dropping points yesterday, they remain there this morning.

Odd-goal victories in close matches have been the secret of their success to date, which may imply a degree of luck, but there was not much that went their way yesterday. They hit the post, twice had shots cleared off the line, but could not find the elusive winner.

Even the Villa goal that denied Everton their fourth successive win would have been described as part fluke if the identity of the scorer had been different. But as Lee Hendrie has been banging in goals from ridiculous distances in recent weeks, his 20-yard effort - his fourth goal in five Premiership matches - was almost run of the mill.

If Hendrie is prolific at the moment so is Marcus Bent and he got his third goal in as many matches to earn Everton a draw that keeps them comfortably ahead of such so-called luminaries as the Uniteds of Manchester and Newcastle, not to mention a team playing in red across Stanley Park.

It is a measure of their progress that the result was grudgingly accepted by a team who only just won a battle against relegation last season. "It says everything that the players are disappointed in the dressing room," Everton's manager David Moyes said. "I thought we had the chances to just squeeze it."

Everton's first brush with ill fortune came after 22 minutes when Tim Cahill's cross from the right went to the far post where Alan Stubbs rose like a centre-forward rather than a centre-back. His header looped back over Thomas Sorensen and would have given the home side a deserved lead but for Mark Delaney appearing behind his goalkeeper to head clear off the line.

Little had been seen of Villa as an attacking force but they remedied that in spectacular fashion after 25 minutes. A neat flurry of passes gave Hendrie space and, after a touch to steady himself, he hit a right-foot shot of such ferocity it flew past Nigel Martyn into the top right-hand corner of the net. Goodison was stunned momentarily, but Everton got an equaliser within seven minutes. No one would describe David Weir as a natural play-maker yet he shook off a tackle and then played an immaculate pass into the area for Bent who took one touch to control the ball and then flicked it past Sorensen into the roof of the goal.

"Marcus is playing very well and he's getting the confidence that scoring goals brings," Moyes said. "But I'm quite hard on him, keep pushing, and I expected him to get a second." To be fair to Bent he went close after 36 minutes. Stubbs had a shot charged down by Delaney and when the ball rebounded, Bent thumped it back towards the Villa goal. Sorensen was able to take most of the sting out of the shot but the ball still bounced beyond him and Nolberto Solano had to clear from close to his posts.

Bent was denied again by Sorensen's diving save just before half-time and this momentum was maintained after the interval when, within 30 seconds of the restart, Cahill's overhead kick landed at Leon Osman's feet by the penalty spot and he should have done better than to scoop his shot high over the bar.

Steve Watson's header sailed close to a post and Bent dithered over a shot and allowed Delaney to make the tackle after 54 minutes. Everton were pouring forward with confidence to an extent that Weir, again in an advanced position, was able to send a right-foot shot dangerously close to the Villa bar from 25 yards.

Everton threw the kitchen sink (otherwise known as Duncan Ferguson) at Villa but the closest they came to a winner was when Osman turned and hit a low shot past Sorensen after 66 minutes only for the ball to hit a post. "It was the right result," said Villa's manager David O'Leary, who had lambasted his team after their League Cup defeat at Burnley on Tuesday. The surprising thing was, he was straight-faced when he said it.