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Suddenly the parameters and expectations have changed.  No longer are we receiving plaudits for how well we are doing; instead, people are pointing out that it was only 1 win in 9 (or whatever the figure was) [er... 10 — Ed].

I suppose it was inevitable; having reached fifth place, the desire now becomes to retain, or, perhaps, even better that position.  In the light of that sort of expectation, the Sunderland game was an important game to win.  We are undoubtedly sliding; we need to arrest that slide as quickly as possible.

The team news was promising; there were doubts as to whether we would have a fit 'keeper and a fit centre forward.  Fortunately, Wright was cleared to play in goal and McBride in attack.  Other than that, the big surprise was the dropping of Yobo to the bench.

This game had a strange ebb and flow to it.  For the most part, the flow was in our direction but, at some crucial junctures, it very nearly went against us.

We started very positively.  Within the minute we had won a corner and seen Stubbs miss with a free header.  To compound the error, he did the same after 5 minutes.  Both were clear headers; both should have been on target — and Stubbs knew that more than anyone.  In addition to that, Radzinski should have done better when put clear in the box but his feet seemed to get in a bit of a muddle.  Watson had hit the post with a header, and McBride drew a fine save from Sorenson.

We should have been out of sight; instead, we got a painful reminder of what can happen when you don't take your chances.  Sunderland hadn't done much more than a few pretty passing movements in midfield but, on 30 minutes, they sliced us open.  Phillips was allowed to wander through the midfield area before releasing Kilbane who just got goal-side of Watson; Kilbane's shot found the far corner.

Suddenly, our earlier composure was gone and Sunderland came damn close to getting another — Wright producing a decent save to deny Phillips.  Fortunately, we managed to stutter our way to half-time without inflicting further damage on ourselves.

The second half brought a change — Gravesen coming on for Li Tie.  It also brought a return to Everton domination.  For 10 to 15 minutes, we blitzed them, forcing corners and putting them under severe pressure.

It was during this period that McBride scored his brace.  First, Gemmill made a good run into the space to the side of the box.  He bided his time before dinking in a cross.  The cross was actually behind McBride but he improvised an overhead kick which he made powerful connection with but which required a big deflection to loop over Sorenson.  His second followed good work from Radzinksi, the ball was passed in to McBride on the edge of the box, he seemed to get the ball trapped under his feet a little, but this looked like a supremely skilful pullback which mesmerized the three defenders in front of him, who all fell in a heap as he managed to adjust and get in a good shot to the bottom corner.

At this time we were on fire and it seemed inevitable that we would score again.  However, it was a little too frantic; it was like we were still chasing the game.  All very entertaining, but Sunderland nearly caught us out on the break.

Realisation seemed to dawn on the pitch that we needed to be a little more circumspect.  However, we seemed to go too far the other way and sat back a little too much, inviting Sunderland onto us.

It was edgy, but not desperately so.  They did have a few sniffs but we survived and it was three very welcome points

• Wright 7  A few near gaffes but two excellent saves.
• Pistone 8  Excellent — both defensively and attacking.
• Unsworth 7  Did his usual unfussy job.
• Stubbs 7  Two bad misses, but defensively sound.
• Weir 7  His usual reliable job.
• Watson 7  Another good performance — making the right midfield berth his own.
• Li Tie 6  A couple of good passes but not one of his better games.
• Gemmill 8  Always looking for the pass, and very influential today.
• Naysmith 7  His usual honest committment.  Nothing special.
• Radzinski 8  Another very good performance that just lacked goals; where have we heard that before?
• McBride 7  Two good goals and a very competent display.  A few times he betrayed his rustiness, but a more-than-decent performance.  Never thought I'd hear Goodison chanting "U - S - A"!!!
• Gravesen 6  Very prominent during our purple patch — not so noticeable afterwards.
• Campbell 5  Looks a little leaden footed — obviously lost a little fitness.

Team 7  A bit of an up-and-down afternoon, but we got there in the end and played some nice stuff en route.

Man of the match — Gemmill; Pistone was a real contender but Gemmill was always there... looking for the ball and using it well.

Richard Marland