Former Wigan star Leighton Baines grabs point for Everton
Former Wigan defender Leighton Baines struck a late penalty against his old club to earn Premier League highflyers Everton a point in an entertaining 2-2 draw at the DW Stadium on Saturday.
- Agence France-Presse
- Updated: October 06, 2012 09:44 PM IST
Former Wigan defender Leighton Baines struck a late penalty against his old club to earn Premier League highflyers Everton a point in an entertaining 2-2 draw at the DW Stadium on Saturday.
Wigan were in front in the 10th minute when Arouna Kone netted from close range after sterling work beating off the Everton defence from Shaun Moloney as he charged into the box.
Kone was celebrating his third goal of the season but television replays showed Everton had been hard done by as the Ivory Coast international was clearly offside.
The Merseysiders were back on level terms seconds later when Nikica Jelavic headed Steven Pienaar's shot-turned pass into the Latics' net by the far post.
This was the Croatian striker's 13th goal in 16 Premier League outings.
In a pulsating opening period Wigan regained the lead in the 23rd minute, with the pacy Kone once again playing a key part.
Getting the better of Everton defender Johnny Heitinga on the right he skilfully picked out Franco di Santo, the Argentine striker shooting past Tim Howard.
Di Santo went close to grabbing his second minutes later with a testing shot this time from the left which Howard did well to push away.
Everton manager David Moyes tinkered with his side at the start of the second half, replacing Heitinga with Sylvain Distin.
Everton's Belgian forward Kevin Mirallas had two quick opportunities to level early in the second half, firing over the crossbar on the first and straight at Wigan goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi on the second.
Phil Jagielka's diving tackle shortly after was instrumental in denying Kone a certain goal from inside the box.
Everton had feverish appeals for a late penalty turned down by referee Kevin Friend after Jelavic took a tumble as he was linimg up a shot.
But three minutes from time Friend had no hesitation in pointing to the spot when Mirallas was felled by Maynor Figueroa, with Baines converting the penalty to earn Everton a share of the spoils.
Maloney almost nicked an injury time winner, his shot deflected off an Everton player and narrowly going over the crossbar.
After Manchester City's earlier win over Sunderland lifted the champions into second the draw left Everton in third place on 14 points with Wigan down in 16th after picking up just five points out of a possible 21.