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Women's Super League: Kirk frustrated as Toffees held by Tottenham

Everton manager Willie Kirk / Action Images via Reuters/Molly Darlington
Everton manager Willie Kirk / Action Images via Reuters/Molly Darlington

Emma Mitchell’s superb free kick rescued a point for Tottenham who came back from two goals down to grab a 2-2 draw with Everton, Alex Waite reports.

Mitchell's strike rounded off a captivating match at The Hive, which saw Everton race into a two goal lead thanks to strikes from Chloe Kelly and Inessa Kaagman.

Angela Addison pulled one back for Spurs with her first ever Barclays FA Women's Super League goal, before Rosella Ayane was shown the red card for lashing out after being fouled.

Mitchell then stepped up to save the day for her side, to leave both sides locked together in mid-table.


The first chance came after 22 minutes when Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah found space inside the Spurs area and shot quickly. Becky Spencer saved but parried to Chloe Kelly, who’s follow up shot was blocked by a desperate Spurs defence.

Spencer almost gifted a goal to Everton minutes later, as she threw the ball against Boye-Hlorkah and Simone Magill controlled the ball but she was tackled before releasing a shot.

Against the run of play, Rianna Dean raced through for Spurs after some loose passing from the Everton defence, but her curling shot hit the post.

The breakthrough came for Everton on the half hour mark, as Kaagman pressured the Spurs defence, won the ball back well and teed up Kelly who fired into the bottom corner for the opener.

Everton started the second half-brightly, with Kelly playing a first time ball for Boye-Hlorkah who raced through and hit the ball early but her shot flashed just wide.

The Toffees doubled their lead on 56 minutes when the ball was played into Magill who controlled well and fed Kaagman who lashed a pinpoint shot into the bottom corner from 20 yards.

Everton continued to push forward but midway through the first half Ria Percival delivered a deep cross which was met by substitute Angela Addison at the far post who guided her header into the bottom left corner.

Ayane was sent off with 15 minutes left for kicking out following a heavy challenge. From the resulting free kick, Mitchell stepped up from 30 yards out and curled into the top right corner.


Both sides had chances in an end to end finish, but neither was able to get the winner.

Everton manager Willie Kirk said: “It’s our first draw of the season. It’s frustrating but that’s where we are as a team, I feel there is still loads and loads of potential and so many things to improve on and one of those is killing games off when we’re on top.

“We let a player turn infield easily for their first and there’s a player unmarked in the box. We never really had a chance to capitalize on the 10 men in terms of keeping a lead intact, but it was the first goal that changed the momentum of the game and that’s ultimately what’s done us.

“These are good lessons for the squad but I think there are loads of positives to take. The first 60 minutes we were really good and the amount of chances we created in the first-half.”

Tottenham head coach Juan Amoros said: “Going 1-0 down was never good and we changed a couple of things about how we press and that we believe in our work and how we do things. We had our chances and in the second half we took them.

“The pitch was a little bit wet and is got a bit risky and dangerous but this is football. I think both teams played fair. I need to see what happened with the red card because it was a bad challenge from the opposition but the player sent off was ours.

“We created our own problems a little bit at times, it’s something we will address but we are a team who try to play and be brave on the ball and I don’t think we’ll change that because that’s what we believe in. A lot of our chances came from being brave in possession.”

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