Charlton Athletic 1 - 0 Everton

Half-time: 1 - 0

A rout was feared but Everton clung on to the game until half-time, when Idan Tal replaced the ineffective Joe-Max Moore.  But the real fun started immediately after Duncan Ferguson came on (along with David Unsworth).  Duncan imposed himself from the that minute onwards, heading straight fro Rufus and letting him know that Dunc had not forgotten who put him out injured for four months

The whole mood of the game changed in typical Ferguson fashion, with fouls, free kicks, physical battles, flick-ons, corners, headers – the works!  It really lifted the Everton team, backed in fine voice by the travelling Blues, and threatened to turn the game on its head.  

But a frightening break by Charlton had the ball in the back of the net... only for it to be disallowed for offside, as the tension built in the last 15 mins.  Then an overhead kick by Tal hit the post.  

Everton kept pushing but it was not to be.  A critical relegation scrap ends in defeat.

Anyway, Everton were simply awful in the first half, lacking ideas, passion and common sense as the high balls kept coming to the diddy forwards and we really were lucky not to go in 3-0 down.  We kept playing high balls to the two small strikers, Cadamarteri and Joe-Max – Why, oh why?? 

Ball was excellent as was Weir for the most part – just a shame that as captain he didn't get us organised for the early corner they scored from.  Why have 5-foot-nothing Naysmith attempt to mark the Giant Svensson on a set-piece? 

Alexandersson had better still be unfit because otherwise he is just crap.  Gravesen was as bad as last week – and that is saying something.  Our problems are in midfield and it is surely a sign of our weakness that we are missing Gazza so much. 

Good to see Tommy back between the sticks – he had his obligatory couple of rushes of blood to the head but came off his line more in one game than Gerrard does in a season and it was clear Weir had more confidence in him.  He looked a bit dodgy/rusty as he missed a few crosses, punched when he should have caught and basically was apologising to his defenders far to much for comfort.  The Evertonians, however, were so obviously glad he was back that they kept on cheering him regardless – which must have done wonders for his confidence.

The second half was a different story, however, with Tal making an immediate impact and the blues altogether showing more determination.  On this basis, Idan Tal should be getting played from the start. 

Gravesen improved a lot in the second half, but the real impact came with the two subs, Unsworth and Big Dunc, who came on to rapturous applause.  The substitutions visibly lifted the Everton players and it was game on, with a half-fit Dunc doing more than Moore and Cada combined.  Ferguson gave the home defence a torrid time by winning everything that came his way, which was a lot as balls were pumped up to him. Alas it was not to be... but on balance we deserved a point.

Why, oh why are we so inconsistent?  It really was a game of two halves.

Player Ratings (by Paul Collyer)

• Myhre 7 - good command of area and good handling 
• Watson 6 - ok 
• Weir 6 - ok 
• Ball 7 - good 
• Naysmith 7 - solid 
• Gravesen 6 - crap first half, better second 
• Hughes 6 - nice player but flatters to deceive 
• Gemmill 6 - ok 
• Alexandersson 4 - off the pace 
• Cadamarteri 6 - tried everything 
• Moore 3 - we might as well have played with 10 men 
• Ferguson 8 - made things happen, won 99% of headers 
• Tal 7 - wants to win, should start next 10 games 
• Unsworth 6 - "Unsie"

Charlton are well organised, should finish mid-table with no difficulty.

INJURIES ARE frequently the most common excuse given by managers whenever their teams get beaten.  But no one can argue with the fact that Everton have suffered more than most when it comes to regular absentees.  Francis Jeffers, Kevin Campbell and Paul Gascoigne were all conspicuous by their absence yesterday as Everton went into the first of four Christmas and New Year games with nine players out.

Seven has been the norm for most of the season and the Everton manager was in no mood to criticise his makeshift line-up after a second-half fightback that deserved a point.  "I don't think many clubs could handle that situation," said Smith.

The only ray of hope is that Duncan Ferguson has started to regain fitness even though he can play only half a game at most.  He made an immediate impact when he was introduced just after the hour for his first appearance since the corresponding game in August.

Ferguson's first contribution was to win a free-kick from which fellow substitute David Unsworth almost equalised.  For the rest of the game, the big Scot led the line with power and authority and his side played with far more adventure and self-belief, their best opportunity falling to another substitute, the Israeli Idan Tal, who struck the bar with an audacious overhead kick.

Until Ferguson's introduction, Everton had been distinctly second best and would have gone further behind had Charlton not been over-elaborate.  The goal they did score came early and owed much to a mistake by goalkeeper Thomas Myhre, the only blot on an otherwise impressive display.  The Norwegian international, making his first start of the season, was caught out of position and was forced to leave his area to clear a Charlton attack.

Although Michael Ball retreated to head Jonatan Johansson's fierce shot over the bar, the danger was far from over.  From the game's first corner, Mathias Svensson ran cleverly to the near post to steer home a neat header.

Myhre, to his credit, redeemed himself with several fine stops thereafter and Smith now has to pay his former club, Viking Stavanger, a further £300,000, the Norwegian having played 75 games for the Merseysiders.

While Everton can only cast envious eyes at the progress being made across Stanley Park, especially Liverpool's last two results, Charlton manager Alan Curbishley's ambitions are simply to stay in Premiership and increase the capacity of the Valley.  He too had players out yesterday, although not as many as Smith, and was delighted to have collected three points after a spate of defeats.

DOMINATING the first half, scoring what proved to be the only goal after just seven minutes, Charlton, defied time and again by Thomas Myhre, Everton's Norwegian keeper, could have lost that lead in the second half.  "Charlton started the game better than us," said Everton's manager, Walter Smith, who lamented a plethora of injuries – nine players unavailable in all.  "I felt we had most of the second half; we were unfortunate not to get back on level terms."

For his part, Alan Curbishley, Charlton's manager, was relieved that history had not repeated itself.  All too often of late, he said, Charlton had been well on top in the first half, only to run into difficulties in the second.

"Teams tend to throw caution to the wind," he said, "and push their full-backs in.  We knew Duncan Ferguson would come on, and balls would be knocked up to him.  You've just got to get out of that.  When we come under that pressure, can we play our way out and get the second goal?"

But the second goal would not come, even though Myhre – just back across the Mersey from loan to Tranmere – had to make another notable save in the second half, when John Robinson's cross from the left sailed over the Everton defence, to be met with perfect timing and technique by Claus Jensen.

Jensen, it had been, who took the crucial right-wing corner from which Mathias Svensson had headed Charlton's goal.  This had been preceded by a dramatic moment, in which Myhre was arguably unlucky.

Racing out of his area to head away a long ball which had eluded his defence, he was left marooned and helpless when Jonatan Johansson lobbed over his head, only for Michael Ball to leap on the line, and back head the ball over his own bar.  So came the resultant corner, and the Charlton goal.

Later in the half, from another right-wing corner taken by Jensen, the Charlton centre-back, Richard Rufus got in a header, to which Myhre, in turn, got a hand.

There were other escapes for Everton in this period, notably when Svensson connected with a spectacular bicycle kick, which Myhre did wonderfully well to save.

As against that, late in the second half, Everton at the same end produced their own spectacular overhead shot when David Unsworth nodded the ball to the Israeli left-winger Idan Tal, Dean Kiely desperately getting a hand to the ball which rebounded from his post.

Everton during the first half looked passive and innocuous.  They had only a single shot of any consequence, but Thomas Gravesen's attempt from outside the box gave Kiely scant trouble.

The lightweight pair of Joe Max-Moore and Danny Cadamarteri had negligible success against the Charlton defence.  But when Walter Smith put on his second half substitutes, the music changed.

Notably after Ferguson, who had not played since August, was finally deployed.  Though he is obviously not fully match-fit, he is always the potential threat in the centre, while his arrival enabled Tal to move out to the left flank, where he is at his most effective.  Everton, who looked a beaten and dejected team in the first half, now finally found the spirit and morale to attack.

Charlton's clever Irish international play-maker, Mark Kinsella, no longer had the room and time to pull the strings in midfield.  And, apart from that spectacular attempt by Jensen, it was Everton who carried the greater threat.

"Duncan Ferguson," said Smith, "always supplies you with a focal point.  Unfortunately for us, after creating two or three chances, we didn't manage to take them."