A determined well-organised Everton held Spurs to a draw in an entertaining White Hart Lane encounter.

Everton were ahead thanks to left-back Leighton Baines’ superb free-kick. But their lead only lasted three minutes after a mistake by the Toffees’ American goalkeeper Tim Howard helped hand Rafael Van der Vaart the simplest of equalisers.

The game started slowly but sprang into life on 18 minutes when Everton’s Yakubu Aiyegbeni won a free-kick on the edge of the Spurs box from which Baines curled an unstoppable shot into the top right-hand corner of the net.

Spurs were level within three minutes. Howard flapped at Alan Hutton’s cross from the right and the ball hit Peter Crouch beyond the far post, falling back into the danger area from where Van der Vaart tapped-in.

Tottenham had the better chances before the break, with Crouch heading the best of them straight at Howard from another Hutton cross in stoppage time.

The game drifted after half-time. Spurs again had the better opportunities but they were no more than half-chances and were few and far between

And Everton’s Tim Cahill buzzed a long-range effort narrowly wide on 71 minutes, while they defended superbly to earn their point.