Everton 2 Werder Bremen 2 (Daily Post)

Aug 1 2007 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

AMID all the chatter of incomings, outgoings and comebacks, there’s one returning name that has been largely overlooked at Everton.

The May recurrence of the foot injury that ruled him out for three months of last season meant James McFadden has been forced to play catch-up in his quest for fitness.

As such, the Scotland international was making his first appearance of pre-season when he emerged an hour into last night’s Goodison friendly against Werder Bremen. And having missed huge chunks of his preparation, he didn’t waste time in announcing his return.

McFadden netted a 75th-minute equaliser before ensuring Everton earned a deserved draw from a lively encounter with the Bundesliga side by creating a last-minute goal for Anderson de Silva.

But despite McFadden’s profitable cameo, the main talking points at Goodison came away from the action.

Leighton Baines made a surprise appearance alongside close friend James Vaughan in the directors’ box to further fuel rumours of an imminent transfer to Everton from Wigan Athletic.

And in the stands, the supporters had their first opportunity to express their opinion on the proposed ground move to Kirkby since the unveiling of the planned 55,000-seat arena.

Of those voices that made themselves heard, the feedback was less than positive.

The Gwladys Street made their feelings known with shouts of “We’re not going to Kirkby” and “Goodison”, while one fan sat in the Main Stand articulated his objection to the Kirkby move with a vitriolic outburst aimed at chief executive Keith Wyness.

The vote later this month will determine the next move of the Everton board, but the early evidence suggests more work must be done to win over the hearts and minds of the club’s hardcore following.

Back on the pitch, there was also a welcome return for Tim Cahill, making his first club appearance since breaking his metatarsal at Sheffield United back in March.

With the rest of the squad on tour in the United States, Cahill had been training at Bellefield following Australia’s early exit from the Asian Cup earlier in the month.

He began last night’s game on the right flank of a four-man midfield before being later moved to a more central position as Moyes tinkered with his tactics.

Worryingly, Cahill ended the evening prematurely with ice packed around the same foot damaged at Bramall Lane after an awkward fall. The Australian will have a precautionary X-ray today, although Everton were keen to play down fears of a recurrence of his old injury.

Phil Jagielka, the £4million arrival from Sheffield United, made his home bow as a second-half substitute, but Goodison was made to wait until a week on Saturday for their first glimpse of fellow new signing Steven Pienaar.

The South Africa international, who has arrived on a season-long loan from Borussia Dortmund, is back in Germany to secure a visa after last week’s successful work permit application.

Back on home soil, Everton were keen to make amends for the uninspiring performance against Real Salt Lake in their last proper friendly outing 10 days earlier.

But a performance laced with verve and vigour was undermined by an indifferent final delivery, the erratic yet effective goalkeeping of Bremen’s Tim Wiese and some indecisive defending.

With only Saturday’s trip to Crystal Palace to come before the start of the Premier League season, Moyes will be aware of the kinks that still need to be ironed out of Everton’s game.

Wiese was first pressed into action in the seventh minute, clawing away a goalbound Phil Neville effort from a Victor Anichebe cross. From the resultant corner, the young striker helped on Joseph Yobo’s header only for Wiese to save with his feet.

Mikel Arteta, best on show for the umpteenth occasion of his Everton career, saw a shot deflected wide and then struck a trademark free-kick from 25 yards that Wiese made hard work of saving.

Everton’s finest move of the half came in the 25th minute, when a lengthy passing movement in which the ball was sprayed from wing to wing ended with Cahill heading over a Tony Hibbert cross at the far post.

Nuno Valente thrashed an angled drive narrowly wide before Arteta caused a minor scare when he left the pitch for treatment after receiving a bang to the right knee in a collision with Bremen full-back Christian Schulz.

Other than a Diego shot that ricocheted across Tim Howard’s goal, Bremen offered little in attack and could have fallen behind shortly before half-time when centre-back Per Mertesacker missed Arteta’s right-wing cross and the ball hit the unwitting Anichebe before bouncing inches off target.

Soon after the restart, Neville punted two further efforts over the bar, the second after Andrew Johnson had harassed Wiese into gifting possession, only for Everton to fall behind after a rare moment of Bremen quality prised open the home defence on 55 minutes.

A one-two with Brazilian midfielder Diego put right-back Clemens Fritz in behind the backline, the Bremen man executing a precise low cross for the incoming Boubacar Sanogo to slide home inside the six-yard box.

Everton’s subsequent pressure lacked direction until, with a quarter of an hour remaining, a cross from the left by Nuno Valente into the danger area took a fortuitous bounce off Leon Osman and James McFadden was alert to slam home the loose ball via Wiese’s left-hand post.

But Bremen reclaimed the lead 10 minutes later when a corner from the left was flicked on by Sanogo and Mertesacker forced the ball home at the far post ahead of Valente.

Substitute Kevin Schindler, who netted against Liverpool a fortnight ago, missed a late chance to add another goal to his list when he dragged the ball wide.

And it proved costly for the visitors when McFadden crossed from the left in the last minute for the unlikely figure of de Silva to equalise and earn Everton a draw.