Football: Wasteful West Brom held to a draw by Everton

Sports Tuesday 26/December/2017 21:55 PM
By: Times News Service
Football: Wasteful West Brom held to a draw by Everton

London: West Bromwich Albion failed to make the most of their opportunities in front of goal as they were held to a goalless draw by Everton in the Premier League on Tuesday.
The hosts made a blistering start at the Hawthorns and could have broken the deadlock from a whipped cross by Jay Rodriguez but striker Salomon Rondon missed the target from close range in the sixth minute.
Defender Craig Dawson headed another West Brom chance over the bar from inside the six-yard box as Everton continued to struggle against crosses put into the penalty area for the majority of the encounter.
Chances continued to flow for West Brom after the interval as Rondon, clear into the box, sliced an effort wide which turned out to be his last action before injury forced him out of the game.
Everton, who were without their top scorer Wayne Rooney, lacked the attacking firepower to test West Brom goalkeeper Ben Foster, but a resolute defensive display on the other end of the pitch ensured they remain unbeaten in the six league games since new manager Sam Allardyce took charge.
"Our football was average in possession, which continues to concern me. We are building blocks in terms of being resilient but we need to be better in possession," Allardyce said.
"We've got another point, another clean sheet and we look forward to our injured and ill players coming back so that, certainly in possession, we can get better."
Alan Pardew continues to wait for his first victory as West Brom boss with all of his team's three points this month coming along with a 0-0 scoreline.
"It is difficult to try understand how we have not won today but we go onto the next game. It was a sound performance and the fans were tremendous," Pardew said.
"We have 17 games to go. If we can play at the level we just have I will be very, very happy and we will get enough points. It was probably our best 90 minutes since I've been here."
West Brom remain 19th in the league table, three points adrift of safety, while Everton stay ninth on 27 points.