Everton 1-1 Birmingham City: Heitinga stunner cancels out Beausejour opener but draw lifts McLeish’s side out of drop zone

Everton and Birmingham City shared the spoils at Goodison Park on Wednesday evening as the two sides couldn’t be separated resulting in a 1-1 draw despite the home-side dominating the majority of proceedings.

A brilliant Jonny Heitinga strike cancelled out Jean Beausejour’s 17^th minute header as the hosts failed to pick up just their sixth home league win of the season whilst Birmingham lifted themselves out of the relegation zone ahead of West Ham United by virtue of goal-difference.

The home side looked to get at their opponents from the off and thought they were in after just two minutes as a good exchange of play between Mikel Arteta and Louis Saha ended with the Frenchman stumbling in the area when he was in a great position to shoot.

League Cup champions Birmingham also looked to announce their intentions early on as just a minute later a free-kick from the right hand side was whipped in by Sebastien Larsson towards Cameron Jerome who produced a great save from Tim Howard with a header that appeared to deflect off Saha.

Everton, who are going through somewhat of an injury crisis at the moment had more bad news to contend with inside the first ten minutes as influential midfielder Arteta had to be taken off with what was a suspected torn hamstring.

Jermaine Beckford showed a glimpse of his recent form in the 11^th minute as the former Leeds United man turned Roger Johnson fantastically before shooting at goal from just outside the penalty area, but Ben Foster produced a strong one-handed save down to his right to quell the danger.

However, the visitor’s took the lead against the run-of-play in the 17^th minute as City midfielder Jordon Mutch floated a high-ball into the Everton area and Chilean international Jean Beausejour rose above Tony Hibbert to head past Howard and notch his second league goal for the club.

The hosts thought they’d earned themselves a penalty in the 24^th minute as substitute Seamus Coleman surged into the box before falling to the ground under the pressure of Stephen Carr, but it was the Everton wideman who was penalised for handball.

The Birmingham defence were almost left red-faced in the 30^th minute when Beckford failed to connect with a smart Coleman pass, Carr attempted to head back to Foster who missed it just managed to pick it up before it went over the line.

Everton equalised in the 35^th minute however as Jonny Heitinga scored his first goal in two years in a spectacular manner after a corner was poorly cleared by Cameron Jerome and the Dutchman placed a first-time shot straight into the top corner of Foster’s net.

The hosts were looking to push-on and grab another goal before half-time and nearly did just three minutes after Heitinga’s goal when Coleman drew a good save from Foster after ghosting in behind the Birmingham defence, but the two sides went into the break level.

 The second half started in very much the same manner as the first ended with the hosts looking to force the issue by grabbing a second goal to take the lead and did come close with a Saha header in the 54^th minute, but his effort went over with the Frenchman claiming for a penalty as the former Manchester United man was clearly man-handled by Liam Ridgewell, but the referee refused to give in.

Despite restricting Birmingham to minimal touches in the Everton half, the hosts didn’t carve open a decent goal-scoring opportunity until the 65^th minute when Saha turned Johnson and surged into the box, but opted to cut back onto his left foot giving Martin Jiranek time to get back and block the former Fulham man’s shot.

Four minutes later, Beckford did almost the exact same thing as Saha before him as he burst into the right-hand side of the box but too many twists and turns meant that the summer signing could only shoot at Foster from a very tight angle.

As the final ten minutes approached, Everton looked to press even harder on the Birmingham back-four with Leon Osman going close as he cut inside from the left and unleashing a right-footed shot but Foster was once again equal to Everton’s efforts as the England International tipped over.

However, despite piling on the pressure for the last 10 minutes, the home side couldn’t carve out any goal-scoring opportunities and the match ended all square.