Everton remain in the bottom half of the Premier League after an unfortunate 2-1 home defeat at the hands of Swansea.
Inconsistency and late goals have hampered the Toffees this season, but they may have sensed an opportunity to pick up a win at Goodison Park against a Swansea City sdie with a new manager in Francesco Guidolin and fighting the drop.
However, Everton were not able to recover from the concession of two first half goals, on an afternoon where they missed gilt-edged opportunities.
An ill-judged backpass to his goalkeeper in the box from John Stones, played in Swansea forward Andre Ayew, who was fouled by Tim Howard.
Gylfi Sigurdsson converted that penalty on 17 minutes.
Ayew celebrates his goal (Picture by: Jon Super / AP/Press Association Images)
Everton, who had hit the post in the opening stages from a long range effort from Muhammad Besic - who subsequently left the field injured along with Kevin Mirallas - did get back into the game Gareth Barry deftly flicked an equaliser.
But the game changed again until 34 minutes when Ayew's effort from outside the box took a deflection off Stones and hit the back of the net.
Oh Seamus....no..... https://t.co/LiArARomgE
— Off The Ball (@offtheball) January 24, 2016
Everton missed a host of chances in the second half with Seamus Coleman and Romelu Lukaku both coming close.
Coleman missed from two yards with the final kick of the game as Francesco Guidolin's side escaped Goodison Park with all three points. Earlier Lukaku had let a tap-in opportunity from a Gerard Deulofeu cross slip away.
Roberto Martinez's side stay 12th, while Swansea push themselves four points clear of the bottom three.
