This weekend saw the visit of Everton to White Hart Lane in what looked like an intriguing match up given both sides indifferent form of late. King, Assou-Ekotto, Lennon, Corluka and Pavlyuchenko returned to the starting line up having missed the Uefa Cup tie in midweek and Zokora retained his spot in the starting line up in place of the injured Jermaine Jenas.

We started the game relatively well and carved out the first chance after nine minutes with Tom Huddlestone’s strike narrowly going over the crossbar from the edge of the box. Following this early effort however, the game became congested and chances proved few and far between for the remainder of the first half. Aaron Lennon had a chance just after the half hour mark and possibly should have done better; blazing high and wide after being put in on goal by Didier Zokora. Everton were next to threaten as Marouane Fellaini struck fiercely from 25 yards forcing Gomes into an excellent save that the Brazilian palmed away to safety, the resulting clearance fell back to the feet of Fellaini who struck well at goal again, this time Gomes managed to hold onto the effort and the danger was averted.

The best chance of the first half most certainly fell to in form striker Darren Bent, as Assou Ekotto’s ball across the penalty area found its way to his feet, unfortunately Bent could only strike weakly straight into the arms of Tim Howard. It was then Everton’s turn to threaten once again; as Louis Saha rose to meet Tim Cahill’s cross but could only direct his header straight at Gomes.

We began the second half well and Assou Ekotto was unlucky to see his rasping strike from 30 yards narrowly fly over Tim Howard’s crossbar. It was Everton who were to have the first meaningful input of the second half however, as Steven Pienaar picked the ball up on the left hand side of the penalty area, the South African struck well from just outside the box and saw his effort deflect off Vedran Corluka and fly past a helpless Gomes into the bottom corner of the net.

Just two minutes after cruelly falling behind we had a golden chance to bring the game back level. David Bentley squared a free kick from the right hand side of the penalty area across the box to Roman Pavlyuchenko who had lost his marker and found space on the penalty spot, unfortunately the Russian forgot the first rule of striking a football, get your head over the ball, and blazed high over the crossbar, I imagine ending up somewhere along the Paxton Road!!

The chances came thick and fast from here on in for both teams as, firstly Pienaar had his effort well saved by Gomes on around the hour mark and minutes later Tim Howard saved superbly down to his left at the near post as Pavlyuchenko slid into to connect with Bentley’s cross.

Victor Anichebe, who came on late-on to replace the injured Louis Saha, went close in the last 10 minutes as his effort fizzed across Gomes’ goal and narrowly by the far post in an attempt to kill off the game. We pressed hard through the closing stages, including a generous 6 minutes stoppage time, but were ultimately unable to find the back of the net as Everton held on to take all three points.

So Harry suffers his first defeat at the Lane, but with the London derby with West Ham next week at Upton Park we can scarcely afford to let our heads go down.