Everton 0 BATE Borisov 1

The Uefa Europa League group game between Everton and BATE Borisov at Goodison Park on Thursday Dec 17.

Jack Rodwell, one of just two first-team players selected by David Moyes for this meaningless Europa League fixture with BATE, limped off after just nine minutes with a hamstring injury which could rule him out until the New Year, adding to Everton’s never-ending injury crisis.

So stretched our Everton’s resources, Moyes had been forced to name a virtual youth team - including three debutants - against the Belarussian champions, but it is typical of the misfortune which has characterised the Scot’s campaign that it was Rodwell who should pull up after injuring his left leg.

Moyes now faces the prospect of facing the busy Christmas schedule deprived of as many as 10 regulars. Mikel Arteta, Phil Jagielka and Phil Neville are not expected to return to action before February, while hamstring trouble has already accounted for Joseph Yobo and Sylvain Distin, both of whom will not play again until January.

Victor Anichebe and Dan Gosling, too, will accompany Rodwell in the treatment room. Neither Leon Osman nor Yakubu, both of whom featured here as they step up their recuperation from injury, are likely to be back to peak fitness for some time, while Louis Saha - another hamstring victim - has been restricted to the role of impact substitute in recent weeks.

The prospect of Mick Rathbone, Everton’s overworked physiotherapist, enjoying a quiet Christmas appears remote.

It is testament to the loyalty of Everton’s support that 18,242 braved the biting Merseyside cold, and occasional flurries of snow, to watch a team largely comprised of understudies’ understudies. Their wisdom, sadly, remains in doubt. They were not entertained.

Everton, full of running, lacked quality and composure. Their visitors, Sergei Krivets apart - a man boasting the sort of hair cut designed to procure him a move West - were equally lacklustre. Carlo Nash, playing for the first time in 18 months, enjoyed 28 soporific minutes before facing a shot.

It triggered what, by the standards of the night, constituted a flurry of activity, both Osman and Kieran Agard fluffing half-chances, before the game settled back to its somnolent ebb and flow.

Indeed, one Shane Duffy block on the line apart, by the time Aleksandr Yurevich’s 25-yard daisy cutter narrowly evaded Nash and nestled in the far corner with 15 minutes to play, even the noisy handful of travelling fans had grown quiet.

They exploded briefly and, when Agard and Jose Baxter went close, grew nervous. The end, though, was as meaningless as the start.

Match details

Everton (4-4-2, r-l): Nash; Coleman, Duffy, Hibbert (Mustafi 75), Bidwell, Forshaw, Rodwell (Akpan 9), Osman (Craig 81), Baxter, Agard, Yakubu
BATE Borisov (4-4-1-1, r-l): Veremko, Yurevich, Bordachov, Sosnovski, Shitov; Nekhaychik (Bulyga 82), Volodko, Likhtarovich (Pavlov 55), Slavish (Goaryan 74); Krivets, Rodionov
Referee: Selcuk Dereli (TUR)