Moments missed from Everton’s dramatic 1-1 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers at Hill Dickinson Stadium in the Premier League on Wednesday night
Stills from the challenge by Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Hwang Hee-Chan on Everton’s Harrison Armstrong that went unpunished at Hill Dickinson Stadium despite two sendings off for the Blues
Everton drew 1-1 with Wolverhampton Wanderers at Hill Dickinson Stadium in the Premier on Wednesday night. After the Blues went ahead in the first half through Michael Keane, Matheus Mane equalised for the visitors after the restart.
And in the end, David Moyes’ men had to cling on for a point against the Premier League’s bottom club throughout nine minutes of stoppage time having had both Keane and Jack Grealish sent off – the first in controversial fashion.
But, then again, you probably knew all of that. But here are some of the moments you might have missed from what was a chaotic clash…
READ MORE: Why Rob Edwards was surprised by Everton as Wolves boss gives honest Michael Keane red card verdict
OPINION
Chris Beesley
On the Ball
The biggest moment missed of the whole night had to be Wolves player Hwang Hee-Chan’s dangerous challenge on Everton’s home-grown hero Harrison Armstrong, who was making his first Premier League start. Another former Blues academy graduate, Michael Ball, who is now the ECHO’s Everton columnist, took to social media to highlight the incident, remarking on X (formerly Twitter): “I missed this: Did it get checked?”
It seems that Ball wasn’t the only one, though. Despite VAR official Christopher Kavanagh, who was assisted by Craig Taylor, being eagle-eyed enough to spot Keane’s tug on Tolu Arokodare’s hair when going up for an aerial challenge and subsequently send his less experienced on-field colleague Thomas Kirk, refereeing just his second Premier League game, to his pitchside monitor to subsequently give the Everton centre-back his marching orders, he and his colleagues at Stockley Park inexplicably failed to act upon Hwang’s nasty actions against the Blues teenager which were only deemed worthy of a yellow card.
The South Korea international infamously enraged the home fans at Goodison Park back in 2022, when he kept holding up the game for trying to continue with an injury but then repeatedly breaking down – an act that prompted him to clasp his hands together towards the Gwladys Street and bow for forgiveness. This, however, was much worse.
In video replays – that were shown at the time by broadcasters Sky Sports and displayed in the Hill Dickinson Stadium press box – Hwang was shown to have flown in on Armstrong and raked the Everton midfielder’s right calf with the studs of his boot.
Ref justice
Despite that glaring omission, it will come as no surprise to Evertonians that former Premier League referees have been queuing up to back their current colleagues over Keane’s sending off. Retired Merseyside official Mike Dean, 57, of Wirral, told Sky Sports: “It’s 100 per cent. You can’t pull a player’s hair.
“As the Wolves players jumped up to head the ball, Keane was behind him, and the referee couldn’t see because he couldn’t look through the players. Keane’s got a big chunk of his hair, and as he jumps up, he pulls his hair down. It has to be a sending-off. 100 per cent correct decision.”
Meanwhile, Mark Clattenburg, he of the 2007 Merseyside derby debacle, told Everton News: “Michael Keane is sent off for pulling Tolu Arokodare’s hair when both were going up for a header. All we want is consistency and we saw a similar incident just over a year ago when Jack Stephen’s of Southampton pulled Marc Cucurella of Chelsea’s hair.
“Keane was correctly sent off under the laws of the game and will now serve a three-match suspension.”
Having a Mayor
As this correspondent pointed out on the night, tugging someone’s hair used to be a playful birthday ritual when I was a boy, but it wasn’t a case of many happy returns for Greater Manchester Mayor and lifelong Evertonian Andy Burnham who complained about both the sendings off.
Taking to social media, the politician told his 580,000 followers on X: “I am 56 today, and admittedly a little old school when it comes to football, but no one will EVER convince me that a minor hair pull and a sarcastic clap is enough reduce a team to nine men. I despair about Premier League football.”
Meanwhile, Leon Osman, who is currently in a three-way tie with the legendary Dixie Dean and current club captain Seamus Coleman for the 10th most appearances for Everton (433), remarked of Keane’s dismissal on Sky Sports: “It’s a unique incident. One that I don’t think I’ve seen before.
“If you see red cards for getting sent off for pulling hair it’s usually something off the ball. Or something malicious. This was a challenge. They were both up in the air, there was arms flailing.
“There was certainly a handful of hair, but it could quite easily have been a handful of jersey. People will think differently about it in the week, but it seemed a strange incident for me.
“This will be debated and talked about for many, many weeks. I do think he has a hold of the hair but is that dangerous play?”
Numbers game
Saturday’s FA Cup third-round tie against Sunderland is a sell-out but for the first time this season when Everton have played a Premier League game at Hill Dickinson Stadium, there were noticeable gaps in the home seating.
Fans had commented online before kick-off that lots of tickets were available for resale but given the demand to get into Blues matches, questions were asked about that process as many were unoccupied.
Posting on social media platform Bluesky, Everton supporter Uppergwladysblu, asked: “Anyone know the attendance for the game last night at the HDS? Nobody seems to be listing anywhere and strangely, Everton never showed it on the big screen during the game like they normally do.”
Those who were present paid tribute to fellow Blue Stephen Jones who died on Saturday following a car crash on Christmas Eve. Spectactors applauded in the 33rd minute of the game to represent the Bootle dad-of-one’s age with his 34-year-old partner remaining in hospital in a serious but stable condition.