Barry rescues point for Everton in draw with Leeds

Everton’s Thierno Barry cancelled out James Justin’s opener for Leeds United to earn a point for the hosts in a lively 1-1 Premier League draw at the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Monday.

Everton move up to 10th in the table with 33 points from 23 games, but will rue two more dropped points at home, while Leeds move six points clear of the relegation zone in 16th place.

Both teams hit the woodwork in a proverbial game of two halves as Leeds were on top in the opening period, before a change in system to three at the back saw Everton wrestle control and claim a deserved equaliser.

“First half we were sloppy, we had to change it in the second half. The manager (David Moyes) did and we were much the better team,” Everton midfielder James Garner said. “We needed more tempo and winning the second balls in midfield.

“We went into the game hoping to get all three points, but we weren’t good enough in that first half. We take a point and move on. We need to start picking up more points at home, we have been very good away.”

Everton were buoyed by the return of centre-back Jarrad Branthwaite for a first competitive appearance since May following a serious hamstring injury, but missed the opportunity to move to within two points of Chelsea in fifth.

Leeds sat back in the second period and paid the price. They still have only one away win this season and one clean sheet in their last 23 games.

The visitors opened the scoring after 28 minutes when Justin netted his first goal for the club.

Having enjoyed space out wide for most of the first half-hour, Anton Stach was played into space on the right and his low ball across goal was struck home at the back post by Justin.

It should have been 2-0 five minutes later when Everton were again caught out on the right and Jayden Bogle’s low ball was met by Dominic Calvert-Lewin, whose close-range shot crashed against the post.

The introduction of Branthwaite and the returning Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall meant Everton were much improved in the second period and Barry forced a sprawling save from Karl Darlow in the Leeds goal.

The hosts were dominating possession as Leeds sat back, and equalised as the unlikely figure of 35-year-old Idrissa Gueye chased a ball down the right flank and his low cross was turned into the net by Barry for his fourth goal in six games.

Gueye almost gave Everton the lead minutes later when his shot from the edge of the box came back off the crossbar.