Everton are hurting themselves - but this is not a time for lost hope

For the second time in a week a draw feels like a defeat for an Everton side that cannot buy a win.

On Monday, they could not have asked for better conditions to start a match as they faced a Crystal Palace side in poor form, with their best players injured and with no manager in the dugout.

On Saturday they could not have asked to end a game in more favourable circumstances as they led a frustrated Brighton & Hove Albion team that was down to 10 men as the match entered stoppage time.

The Blues won neither, and that is a problem. In so many ways it has felt as though the world has been against Everton for some time. On the occasions it is not, they simply have to take advantage. But, and it is hard but important to add that ‘but’ right now - there is some reason for hope they may eventually start to do that.

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At the Amex Stadium, as the rain fell and the clock ticked towards 5pm, it finally appeared the Blues would exploit the luck that had fallen their way. Brighton were comfortably the better side in the first half and there would have been relief in the away dressing room when the half-time whistle blew and it remained goalless. Danny Welbeck and Simon Adingra were a menace through the middle and down the away side's right. Welbeck twice threatened in the Everton box and was thwarted only by brave challenges from James Tarkowski and Ben Godfrey. Adingra, who led the teams out with his Africa Cup of Nations winners’ medal around his neck, fired inches over the angle from one of his many dangerous runs.

The Blues struggled to assert any authority