Everton hit rock bottom as Sasa Kalajdzic snatches points for Wolves

Sean Dyche rubbished the suggestion that no points and no goals from the first two matches of the season constituted a crisis at Everton. He cannot say that now after Wolves substitute Sasa Kalajdzic delivered his club’s first points of the campaign with an 87th minute winner to leave Everton bereft and beaten in their opening three games for the first time in 33 years.

While Gary O’Neil could turn to the Austria international for extra firepower in the closing minutes Dyche resorted to throwing on Michael Keane as an emergency striker in the 90th minute. The substitution said everything about Everton’s transfer window and desperate plight.

Dyche responded to the abysmal defeat at Aston Villa last Sunday by making three changes. The error-prone Keane was replaced by Jarrad Branthwaite in central defence while summer signing Arnaut Danjuma and academy graduate Lewis Dobbin made their first starts for the club, injecting much-needed pace into the Everton attack. The result, however, was a repeat of the Fulham performance on the opening day: plenty of promise and graft but zero end product and zero points.

Their first-half display did offer greater encouragement than an anaemic offering from Wolves. O’Neil’s side were also smarting from a miserable loss last time out yet, while they improved defensively from the Brighton defeat, the visitors posed little threat until Rayan Aït-Nouri replaced Hwang Hee-Chan for the second half.

Everton paid a moving tribute before kick off and in the 26th minute to Michael Jones, the 26-year-old Evertonian who died in an accident at the club’s new stadium recently. Applause was still reverberating around Goodison Park when James Tarkowski missed an excellent chance to put the hosts ahead, slicing wide after José Sá had swept the ball off Branthwaite’s toes and straight to his central defensive partner.

Sá had earlier tipped a Danjuma shot onto a post after the on-loan forward had been played clean through by Amadou Onana. Danjuma was flagged offside but it would have been a close call for VAR had he converted. The new recruit also volleyed wide when picked out inside the Wolves area by one of several inviting crosses from Nathan Patterson, who was being watched by Scotland manager, Steve Clarke.

Branthwaite and Dobbin both impressed on their first starts under Dyche. The young defender was composed, alert to danger and strong in the challenge. The striker, handed a difficult debut assignment out on the left against Nélson Semedo, was sharp and inventive until giving way to new signing Youssef Chermiti. Everton’s set-piece delivery, by contrast, floundered constantly and invited Sá to command his penalty area with ease.

Wolves were vastly improved after the interval with Pedro Neto and Aït-Nouri prominent down the flanks. Fábio Silva flicked a neat finish past Jordan Pickford from a low Hugo Bueno cross but was just offside. Moments later he found himself bearing down on Pickford’s goal following a calamitous mix-up between Tarkowski and the Everton goalkeeper but fired badly wide.

Pickford reacted superbly to save on his goal-line after Neto’s free-kick struck Branthwaite and almost yielded an own goal. Sá did even better to somehow tip over a diving header from Abdoulaye Doucouré. The midfielder was completely unmarked at the back post when James Garner threaded a delightful cross through the Wolves defence. Doucouré fluffed the connection, and should have scored, but his header was still bouncing beyond Sá when the keeper managed to flick the ball up and over his crossbar at full stretch.

Doucouré did manage to beat Sá when collecting another Garner pass and cutting across Michael Dawson before rolling a finish into the far corner. Everton celebrations were cut short by an offside flag, a decision that was backed up after a lengthy review by the VAR.

With five minutes remaining O’Neil introduced Kalajdzic for Matheus Cunha. Within two minutes of his introduction the striker had secured Wolves’ first points of the new season, ghosting in-between the static Tarkowski and Patterson to steer a glancing header from Neto’s deep cross from the right into the bottom corner. It was Wolves’ first effort on target of the game and a dream moment for the Austrian who missed most of his debut season with an ACL injury. For Everton, however, the nightmare continues.