Graham, who scored four times against us at the Lamex Stadium last season, floated a shot just off-target as we approached the half-hour mark while our captain James Rowswell prodded Russell-Denny’s free-kick wide of the near post just prior to the interval.
The weather conditions eased up at the start of the second period but while we were very much in the game, it was the Toffees who enjoyed the better chances, Sherif curling over, Omari Benjamin flashing a dangerous ball across goal that wasn’t converted and Malik Olayiwola coaxing a superb save out of Gunter as space opened up for him to have a shot.
Dante Cassanova went agonisingly close to giving us the lead on 65 minutes, ending his solo run with a deft shot that came back off the far post, Furnell-Gill with a couple of subsequent near misses as we kept the pressure on. In between those attempts, Olayiwola sent another inviting ball across the face of goal – again not converted by anyone in blue – but we were undone on 72 minutes when Benjamin sent a quick pass forward from deep, the offside flag stayed down and Graham ran through to score.
It was a similar situation for Everton’s killer second goal on 84 minutes, Kingsford Boakye this time with the defence-splitting pass, Benjamin looked offside but it was Graham who ultimately ran through and lifted the ball over the advancing Gunter to find the net once more. To our credit we didn’t give in, but it just wasn’t to be our night.