Brentford 1 Everton 1

Image: Fair’s fair and a point each

FOURTH SEASON: Bees and the late, late show

Brentford 1, Everton 1; February 26 2025

Those other Merseysiders – the team that isn’t running away with the Premier League championship – have experienced a sudden resurgence since David Moyes took control. Brentford were not necessarily impressed when Everton turned up at the Gtech Stadium: show us your muscles seemed to be the message from a team that recently had scored four times against Leicester and didn’t care who knew it.

But, as often happens, the latest visitors to Brentford were not quite the troubled outfit of the lower half of the table that had faced them last time out. Not that one would have known this from early exchanges, when the Bees presented a polished performance at home that promised to capture three points without undue inconvenience.

Image: Collins ever solid in defence

True, skipper Christian Nørgaard was missing through concussion, but crowd favourite Vitaly Janelt would be an admirable standby both as midfielder and captain. What was not to like?

From the supporters’ point of view, they scored a double-whammy in that they loved Janelt as much as they didn’t like James Tarkowski. Those with long memories could remember the Everton captain when he made himself unavailable for an important match while still on Brentford’s books. He decamped to Burnley before that club was relegated and moved on to Everton. Many were not amused by the tactic and still aren’t!

And so to the football, where Bryan Mbeumo went about his business with customary skill and Yoane Wissa introduced himself to the Everton travellers with a panache that made them blink more than once.

Image: Janelt steps up as captain for the night 

Everton’s forays into the Brentford half came largely antiseptic and recent acquisition Beto, a Portuguese-born striker, seemed out of sorts. He should have put Everton ahead when a penetrating long ball saw him failing to outwit Flekken in a one-on-one tussle that the goalkeeper won; then, three minutes later, Flekken managed to repeat the same medicine with a similar rush and tumble.

Having put hands before their eyes during all this, the Bees scored the goal they had been long promising, waiting until the referee’s added minutes for the ever-dangerous duo of Mbeumo and Wissa to deliver. In the Everton goalmouth Bryan rattled the crossbar and then saw Yoane take off like a rocket to clinch the score.

Everton’s revival could be attributed to Jason Pickford running the show, or so it seemed. The England goalkeeper not only guarded his goal – Wissa found the net again but was clearly offside – but dealt with kicks from anywhere he could reach without hailing a taxi, plus a running commentary that perked up his team mates no end.

Image: A night of close encounters for Mbeumo and the Toffees’ Alcaraz

And the team responded when a long ball dropped nicely into the penalty area exactly where full-back Jake O’Brien was standing. Brentford’s defence seemed frozen for a few seconds, enabling O’Brien to select a space out of Flekken’s reach. Impeccable as he had been through the match, Flekken would be forgiven if he was a tiny bit miffed.

On the whole, a draw was a fair enough result, I observed to my mate Charlie. ‘I only like one kind of draw’ said Charlie, ‘and that’s scoring more goals than the opposition.’

Brentford: (4-3-3): Ayer (substitute Kayode 81m), Collins, Pinnock, Lewis-Potter; Janelt, Damsgaard, Yarmoliuk; Mbeumo, Wissa, Schade (Maghoma 76).

Everton (4-2-3-1): Pickford, O’Brien, Tarkowski; Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Garner, Gueve (Iroegbunam 75); Lindstrom (A Young 75); Alcaraz, Harrison; Beto.

Image: Pickford orchestrates his Everton captain, the former Bee Tarkowski

Bill Hagerty is a contributing editor to the Bees United website. Photographs by Liz Vercoe.

READ ALSO: Former Fleet Street editor, Chiswick resident Bill Hagerty, is named Journalist Laureate 2023