Smith Rowe: Keep Heads Up

Emile Smith Rowe was left ruing two points dropped after Fulham were pegged back late on at Goodison Park.

A dominant away performance looked set to yield maximum points courtesy of Alex Iwobi’s fine strike, but Everton substitute Beto headed in a 94^th minute equaliser to snatch a draw for the hosts.

“A real low blow,” Smith Rowe admitted at full-time. “Really disappointed to concede in the last couple of minutes. I thought we dominated, so it’s really annoying and I’m not happy.

“It’s really difficult [to take]. I thought we implemented the gameplan really well, we dominated at times, and thought we’d come away with the three points. And then in the last few minutes you have to stay switched on, and we didn’t.”

The opener was a thing of beauty, with Smith Rowe gliding beyond a number of blue shirts before laying off to Iwobi who guided his shot inside the near post from the edge of the box.

And while pleased to contribute, Smith Rowe’s assist did not compensate for the dropped points in the eyes of the midfielder.

“I think I had a really slow first half, so I think it was important for me to get on the ball more in the second half, and try and inject something into the game,” he explained. “It was a good goal by Alex as well so I was happy with that, but then really disappointed with how it ended.

“[Iwobi] can do that, he can define the games. He’s a really good finisher as well, so I’m happy for him to get his goal, but I think for us it was really important to get the three points, and we didn’t do that.”

Despite the gutting conclusion, there were still plenty of positives to take from the evening’s work, ahead of a showdown with Brentford at Craven Cottage next Monday.

“The Manager told us that we’ve got to keep our heads up and go again,” said ESR. “We’re all really down at the moment – it’s normal – but we’ve got to go again, we’ve got to get ready for a massive derby next week.”