Everton fail to land the killer punch for an unlikely new fan Stallone

14 April 2012
Everton 1 Reading 1

The streets around Goodison Park have never experienced anything like it. A fleet of four limousines pulled up outside Goodison Park's main entrance and a Hollywood screen legend spilled out of one of them.

He may be able to look after himself in the roles that have made him famous, but he still needed the assistance of several burly minders to fight his way through the throng of starstruck onlookers who were barring the way in.

Sylvester Stallone's brief flirtation with the world of football, during a break from promoting his latest film, might have had the benefit of extensive advance publicity, but there was still a surreal air about the day Rocky hit town.

The 60-year old veteran of five Rocky films shadow boxed his way to the centre circle before kick-off, sporting an Everton scarf, naturally enough, and was still smiling for mobile phone cameras in the directors' box with the game nearly five minutes old.

Increasing public awareness of Rocky's sixth celluloid outing was the main objective of his visit, but he was more than happy to take time out to watch his first Premiership match as a guest of Planet Hollywood boss and major Everton shareholder Robert Earl.

A goalkeeper in the film Escape to Victory, Stallone made a point of autographing Tim Howard's gloves during a pre-match visit to the home dressing room and David Moyes was quick to dismiss any suggestion that his presence may have caused a distraction.

Even so, Planet Earth is the Everton manager's main focus, and throwing away two points counted far more than basking in the limelight of Stallone's flying visit.

Unhappy at the way Reading drew first blood, Moyes took the blame for the way his side failed to deal with a 28th-minute free-kick and could not resist taking a sly dig at the officials over their failure to rule it out for offside against Stephen Hunt.

He said: Sly just said hello to everyone and shook hands and it didn't stop us getting on with the job. I have to take responsibility for the way we lined up for that freekick.

It was wrong and it cost us.

But Hunt was clearly offside and the linesman was bang in line.

It was disappointing he did not flag, because he was looking right at it. We rallied and showed a great deal of endeavour after that and I felt we really should have gone on to win it after equalising with 10 minutes or so left.'

Reading's chief worry was the sight of leading scorer Kevin Doyle limping off with a hamstring injury in the 38th minute and assistant manager Kevin Dillon said: "We will know more after he has a scan, but at least he is a lad who tends to recover from these things more quickly than most.

"It was brilliant seeing Stallone. I'm usually a miserable so-and-so, but he is a genuine legend and I was quite moved by the reception he got from the crowd.'

Dillon said Reading celebrated their point in a manner that would have met with Stallone's approval.

"Steve Sidwell pulled a CD out of his bag and it was the Rocky theme music," he said. "We didn't think it would be right to play it before the game, but it was blasting out when we got back into the changing room afterwards. So you could say we entered into the spirit of things."

Sylvester had only just finished posing for pictures when Everton squandered the chance of an early lead, as Andy Johnson laid on a close-range chance that LeonOsman mis-hit straight at goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann.

If that was a departure from the script, it wentcompletely awry in the 28th minute as Nicky Shorey's free-kick into a congested six-yard area was met by a Hunt header that struck Howard on the knee and ricocheted over the line off Joleon Lescott.

Reading hardly laid a glove on Everton after that, but were surviving with only the occasional scare. Hahnemann tipped over a fierce rising drive from the fit-again Tim Cahill in the 46th minute and a Victor Anichebe header was bouncing towards an empty net in the 53rd minute until Ibrahima Sonko hooked it clear.

Johnson curled an angled shot beyond the advancing Hahnemann but just wide of the far post in the 71st minute before finally breaking Reading's resistance nine minutes from time.

Anichebe flicked on a Joseph Yobo cross and Johnson beat the advancing Hahnemann's attempt at a punch with a header that was joyously received by his team-mates but not his manager.

A winning goal was still up for grabs and Moyes marched towards celebrating players near the corner flag and angrily pointed them back towards the centre circle.

It failed to materialise but, even so, Stallone may well have reflected that it had been a real cliffhanger as he made his way out five minutes from the end.

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