AMSTERDAM – With Brad Guzan abruptly dropped to the Aston Villa bench for the first time in 109 Premier League games, promoted netminder Shay Given survived a late gaffe of his own to post a 3-2 win over Tim Howard and visiting Everton on Saturday afternoon.
The Toffees backstop made just one save, a first half denial of Charles N'Zogbia's long free kick drive, and one cross claim. After Guzan was dropped on the heels of a kicking mistake that resulted in a goal against Manchester City last week, Given endured a 90th-minute goof when he pushed a looping header off the bar and directly to capitalistic Everton defender Phil Jagielka.
Nevertheless, Villa managed to stay two points above the trap door with three game remaining. Eleventh-place Everton, meanwhile, saw both their six-match unbeaten streak and an unbeaten run of eight games in their series with Villa halted.
One flight down in the Championship, where the 2014/15 season came to a close, Jonathan Spector enjoyed another fine outing in the heart of Birmingham City's defense as the visitors scored a 1-0 win away to Tim Ream and Bolton.
In addition to notching joint game-bests with six clearances and five pass interceptions, Spector also competed 18 of 20 passes and pulled off two tackles, all without committing a single foul or handling turnover.
Fresh off winning his second straight Bolton Player of the Season prize on Friday afternoon, Ream also shined while working the left center back station. Although he nodded wide on a golden restart chance 19 minutes in, the US international was successful on 50 of his 52 passes without a turnover while adding three tackles, a cross smother and an area shot block at the defensive end.
Birmingham City finished the season in 10th-place Birmingham on a three-game win streak by 1-0 margins, while 18th-place Bolton were winless in five.
Also, Daniel Williams made a late cameo in Reading's sorely-needed 3-0 triumph at Derby County. The 19th-place Royals snapped an nine-game win drought across all competitions after clinching survival with three games to spare.
Finally, in Austria, Conor O'Brien and Wiener Neustadt lost key ground in the relegation race, falling 2-1 at Austria Vienna.
The midfielder threatened to score a last-gasp equalizer with a left-footed try from distance, but his effort sailed over the bar. For the game, O'Brien completed 39 of 50 passes and pitched in with three tackles, but it was not enough to keep the basement side from drifting four points away from a safety spot with five games remaining on the schedule.
