Villa fight back to draw six-goal thriller with Everton

By Mike Collett

LONDON (Reuters) - Aston Villa and Everton played out a thrilling 3-3 draw at Villa Park in the Premier League on Sunday after Everton twice led by two goals.

Although the match provided breathless entertainment for the fans, it did little good for either team's attempt to climb into the top four and a Champions League place with Villa staying fifth with 53 points and Everton sixth on 52.

Arsenal, in fourth place, have 61 points with all having played 32 matches. Despite ending a run of four successive league defeats, Villa have now gone 10 games in all competitions without a win.

Everton raced into a 2-0 lead after 23 minutes with Marouane Fellaini side-footing a Leighton Baines cross home in the 19th and Tim Cahill heading the second four minutes later after his first header rebounded back off the bar.

John Carew brought Villa back into it after 33 minutes when he scored from six metres, but Everton re-established their two-goal advantage with a stunning long-range shot from Steven Pienaar eight minutes into the second half.

Everton had no time to take control of the game, though, as Villa struck back two minutes later when James Milner crashed home a 30-metre free kick after Joleon Lescott fouled Carew.

Lescott was punished again 12 minutes later when he kicked Stilian Petrov in the head attempting to clear the ball with referee Howard Webb immediately pointing to the spot for a penalty which Gareth Barry powered past Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard for the equaliser.

Manchester City were playing Fulham later (1500 GMT) in the day's other Premier League match.

(Editing by Rex Gowar. To comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)