Jaw-dropping Maitland-Niles strike earns Everton another last-gasp draw

It’s a little over eight years since an Everton player scored on his Premier League debut but it’s hard to recall a better maiden strike for the Toffees or one laden with more context than the one that rescued a point at Bramley-Moore Dock.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles capped a seismic week on the blue side of Merseyside and what became an increasingly frenetic contest with Manchester United with a quite magnificent last-gasp equaliser five days after arriving as an equally late, but also somewhat underwhelming, deadline-day acquisition from Lyon.

Everton had largely let themselves down in this first game since the transfer window closed by conceding a poor opener early in the second half but had dragged themselves back to parity thanks to Tyrique George’s thunderous equaliser in the 83rd minute.

Those celebrations were cut short by Benjamin Šeško, who looked to have grabbed the winner in this fixture for the second season running but, just shy of 20 minutes into this first appearance back in England, Maitland-Niles delivered the most unexpected of bolts from the blue.

While he and his fellow Londoner, George, will deservedly take the plaudits for their goals, the performance off the bench of Hayden Hackney was just as instrumental in what might prove to be an important point. The first of the new summer arrivals replaced James Garner in central midfield — the latter was supposed to move to right-back but pulled up with cramp almost immediately handing Maitland-Niles his opportunity — and immediately transformed the Blues as an attacking force.

Always looking to drive forward or look for a probing pass Hackney was involved in both goals, earning an assist for the first, and underlined the question marks over why David Moyes elected to drop him from the line-up in the first place after his hugely positive outing against Crystal Palace.

With Harrison Armstrong retained in the middle, however, Garner kept his place, despite looking well short of sharpness and fitness against Bournemouth last week, and the starting duo were part of a side that struggled to contain United in the first half, particularly through the middle and down Everton’s right side.

Merlin Röhl had been preferred to Maitland-Niles at right-back but, frequently caught tucked inside, he was rinsed on more than one occasion by Marcus Rashford while Luke Shaw profited from oceans of space as the visitors came perilously close to grabbing an early lead. Thankfully, Bruno Fernandes’s volley from his cross crashed back off the crossbar.

Youri Tielemans failed to unduly test Jordan Pickford from distance after 17 minutes and Fernandes was afforded all the time he needed a few minutes later to line up a shot from 25 yards out that deflected off the imperious Jarrad Branthwaite and over, while Diego Dalot’s volley from the resulting corner was blocked on its way to goal.

A couple of minutes after that, Rashford skinned Röhl and centred for Matheus Cunha but he blasted over.

Tentative and, with the exception of George and Armstrong, lacking someone to drive them forward, Everton battled to create any forward momentum for much of the first period but they gradually started to find their way as half-time approached.

Their best chance came when Röhl powered down the touchline and whipped in a terrific ball for Thierno Barry but the Frenchman couldn’t keep his header down and it cleared the bar by a couple of inches.

And Branthwaite had a rare shot on target following a corner but he could only fire straight at Senne Lammens in stoppage time.

Any platform from which Everton had hoped to build was taken from under them within a minute of the restart. With George offering little pressure, Vitalii Mykolenko ushered Bryan Mbeumo inside off the touchline and never got tight enough to him as the forward surged into the box and placed a shot past Pickford to give United the lead.

To their credit, the Blues tried to respond and, with his only meaningful contribution on his first start before making way for Jack Grealish, Brennan Johnson saw a shot deflected narrowly wide off an incisive pass from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.

Then, after George danced in superbly from the flank, lovely feet from Barry took him around one man but his shot was charged down impressively by Shaw and Dewsbury-Hall scuffed the rebound into the keeper’s arms.

Michael Carrick’s men came close to effectively putting the result beyond doubt just past the hour mark when Cunha looked set to prod home a loose ball from close range but James Tarkowski executed a perfect goal-saving tackle in his six-yard box to dispossess the Brazilian and keep it at 1-0.

After a Tielemans effort had skidded wide off Tarkowski, Grealish was sent on with 24 minutes left, and while he quickly set up a chance for Dewsbury-Hall that he wasted with another powder-puff finish it was the introduction of Hackney nine minutes later that changed the game.

Pushing purposely outside United’s box, the former Middlesbrough man collected a rebound off Lisandro Martinez, found George in space on the right and the winger set himself before rocketing a shot inside Lammens’ near post to ignite the Hill Dickinson Stadium crowd.

Everton weren’t able to retain the initiative, though and after Šeško had sounded a warning by heading one cross wide, the Slovenian sank Blue hearts two minutes from the end of the 90.

Once again, Shaw was the provider, arriving in space on the overlap, looping a cross over both Maitland-Niles’s outstretched leg and Tarkowski’s vain jump and though Pickford got a hand to Šeško’s downward header, he couldn’t stop it from squirming over the line.

Grealish had a 90th-minute shot charged down and when Hackney’s stoppage-time corner was cleared, Everton’s chance to salvage something appeared to have gone. But when Pickford kept the ball alive with a pass down the left with a pass to Grealish, Hackney ahead of him did well to square it back to Dewsbury-Hall on the edge of the area.

He was locked up by Tielemans and couldn’t fashion space for a strike on goal but when the loose ball was sliced out by a defender to Maitland-Niles 25 yards from goal, the new signing from Lyon steered a majestic right-footer into the top corner as Lammens watched helplessly on his goal line.

It was a stunning goal from one of the most unexpected sources on the pitch and it earned a point that Everton just about deserved on the basis of their improvement in the final third of the match. The Blues’ second injury-time equaliser in eight days preserved an unbeaten start to the season and helped banish some of the dark clouds that had been hovering over Bramley-Moore Dock in the interim.