Thierno Barry settled a match largely devoid of quality with a deflected effort as Everton beat Ipswich 1-0 at the Hill Dickinson, with VAR intervening to deny the Toffees forward what looked to be a legitimate second goal.
James Tarkowski’s strike from range hit the striker and wrong-footed Christian Walton to hand David Moyes’ side their second victory of the season, extending their unbeaten start and lifting them to fifth in the table.
But Everton arguably should have won by a larger margin. Barry met Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s in-swinging corner with a fine glancing header in the second half, only for VAR to intervene and chalk it off, deeming Brennan Johnson to have been interfering with play from an offside position.
The incident comes a week on from the heavily scrutinised officiating display in the Manchester derby, where VAR’s inaction drew major criticism, forcing Pro Ref to issue a statement of apology. On this occasion, however, VAR’s intervention may well cause controversy for the opposite reason.
Speaking on Soccer Saturday, Sue Smith said: “The goal has been ruled out with Johnson deemed to be affecting the goalkeeper, but this is a bad decision. There was no way he was going to save that.”
Abdul Fatawu walks off the field after being sent off for a second bookable offence
The hosts tried and failed to score many more times. Johnson skewed wide in the first five minutes, while Dewsbury-Hall bookended a poor performance in front of goal by heading inexplicably off target from a perfect Tyler Dibling cross late on. From 21 shots, Everton landed two on target.
In the end, their wastefulness did not matter, with Ipswich unable to make any of their chances stick either. Abdul Fatawu was dismissed for two bookable offences before the afternoon was out, with Gary O’Neil left visibly frustrated with his side’s lack of quality. His side registered double Everton’s efforts on target but failed to properly test Jordan Pickford.
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