Match Preview

And so the surprise package of the season rolls into East Anglia looking to take second place in the Premiership, for a couple of hours at least.

David Moyes's Everton got back to winning ways in unspectacular style last weekend against Southampton and they will be looking for an improved display at Carrow Road in front of the live Sky cameras for this early afternoon match against winless Norwich City. Should they win, the Blues will leapfrog Chelsea who kick off against struggling Blackburn at 3 o' clock and preserve that wonderful four-point cushion between themselves and the group of clubs jostling below them.

Selection-wise, this should be a no-brainer for Moyes who will almost certainly name an unchanged line-up with no new injury worries to trouble him. It's an away game so the 4-5-1 line-up gets the automatic green light with Marcus Bent in attack and the onus falls once more on him and the season's goalscoring midfielders to produce the goods.

James McFadden's early exit from the Reserves game in midweek probably indicates another substitute's bench berth for the Scot and Joseph Yobo must also sit out again and watch the two old war-horses of Stubbs and Weir enjoying their renaissance.

Whether Nick Chadwick's public expression of frustration this week will be enough to get him into the squad remains to be seen, but to my eyes, as a forward-looking move, he is surely worth more coming off the bench than the ageing Duncan Ferguson.

Norwich are the only Premiership team not to have recorded a win so far which, given Everton's reputation as the team against whom hoodoos are usually broken, might not bode well. The Blues also haven't won on this ground since the inception of the Premier League.

The defence will have to be wary of top scorer Darren Huckerby whose pace and deep runs will make him a constant threat and loan star David Bentley, if he plays, adds an additional threat from the flank.

But Everton have more than enough talent, confidence, momentum and guile to grab three points here and extend what is a remarkable start to 2004/05. It will require better finishing than they have exhibited in recent games but the resolute defence provides the perfect platform for the likes of Leon Osman, Tim Cahill and Thomas Gravesen to pull the strings going forward if they're in the mood.

Lyndon Lloyd

Matchday Stats

This will be the 48th meeting between Everton and Norwich City in all competitions, and the 23rd at Carrow Road.  This match will be only the 7th meeting in the Premiership.

Everton's full record against The Canaries is:

Our record at Carrow Road is:

The last match between the sides was on 3 January this year when goals from Kevin Kilbane and Duncan Ferguson (2) secured a 3-1 home victory in the F.A. Cup 3rd round.  The last time the two sides met in the Premier League was on 4 February 1995 at Goodison Park when Everton registered their only Premier League win against Norwich thanks to goals from Graham Stuart and Paul Rideout to ensure a 2-1 victory.  The last meeting between the sides at Carrow Road was on 5 November 1994 with the game ending 0-0.

With, relatively, so few games between the sides, there has yet to be an Everton hat-trick.  However 5 Everton players have managed to score 2 goals in matches against Norwich.  Duncan Ferguson was the fifth in last season's FA Cup tie and joined Mike Lyons, Graeme Sharp, Tony Cottee and Mo Johnston.

The most common victory for Everton is 1-0, which has happened 7 times in Everton's 19 victories.  City's most common victory is also 1-0, which has happened 5 times in Norwich's 15 victories.  The most common draw between the teams is 1-1, which has occurred 8 times in the 13 draws between the sides.

Everton's record for 23 October is:

This is the second time the sides have met on this day.  The only other time the clubs have met on this day was in 1985 when Norwich registered a 1-0 victory at Carrow Road in the short-lived Screen Sport Super Cup.  Everton's only other Premier League match on this day was in 1993 when Manchester United were the visitors to Goodison Park and ended up winning 1-0.

Fred Kennedy was born on this day in 1902 in Black Lane.  Signed from Manchester United in March 1925, Fred made 35 appearances and scored 11 goals before his transfer to Middlesbrough after the 1926-27 season.

Eddie Thomas was also born on this day in 1933 in Newton-le-Willows.  After signing professional forms in October 1951, Eddie made 93 appearances for Everton whilst scoring 41 goals, before being sold to Blackburn Rovers in February 1960.

David Johnson and Billy Kenny Snr were both born on this day in 1951 and both in Liverpool.  Johnson had the more successful career of the two.  After signing professional forms in April 1969, David was then sold to Ipswich Town in November 1972.  He went on to win medals with Liverpool before being signed by Everton again in August 1982.  However, his second stint at the club didn't pan out as he was sold to Manchester City in March 1984.  During both stints at the club, Johnson made 104 appearances and scored 20 goals as well as holding a unique Everton record of scoring in his League debut, Goodison debut, derby debut and European debut for the club.  In contrast, Billy Kenny signed professional forms in July 1969 and made just 12 appearances for the club before being sold to Tranmere Rovers in March 1975.

Sam Chedgzoy won his second England cap as an Everton player on this day in 1920, in England's 2-0 victory over Northern Ireland.  This game also saw the only England cap won by John Thomas 'Dicky' Downs during his Everton career.

17 years later, in 1937, Albert Geldard won his last England cap as an Everton player in their 5-1 victory, again over Northern Ireland.  Billy Cook was also in the Irish team in this match, as was Alex Stevenson, who scored Ireland's goal.

On this day in 1912, Frank Bradshaw played for the Football League Representative XI against their Irish League counterparts.

Milestone's that can be reached in this game:

• If Nigel Martyn plays, this will be his 50th appearance for Everton in all competitions.
• If Duncan Ferguson starts the game it will be his 150th start for Everton in the league.

Steve Flanagan

Buoyant Everton too strong for Norwich

Duncan Ferguson came off the bench to head home the decisive goal to kill a remarkable Norwich recovery and hand Everton an even more remarkable fourth away win in five games.  2-0 up and cruising at half time, the Blues were pegged back to 2-2 as the home side roared out of the dressing room with renewed vigour, but David Moyes's substitutions worked to perfection as Steve Watson delivered the telling ball for Ferguson to notch his first goal of the season.

Moyes named an unchanged line-up from that which started against Southampton last weekend but, whereas the end product was sorely lacking against the Saints, the Blues looked far more assured going forward today at Carrow Road.  After ceding the early initiative to Norwich, who had an early chance when a first minute Darren Huckerby free kick found a Norwich head but the downward effort posed little danger, Osman worked a shot from the right which was saved low by Green after good flowing move.

After just 10 minutes, parity was broken when Marcus Bent fed Tim Cahill down the right and, after a fantastic run into the area in which he dinked the ball past a defender and cut it back across goal, Kevin Kilbane was on hand to send a right-footed shot into the roof of net.

1-0 up and in control, Everton sprayed the ball around well and kept possession convincingly as Norwich struggled to make inroads through their solid back line.  Cahill headed a Thomas Gravesen corner tamely over after a quarter of an hour while Drury looped a header over his own bar from the Dane's throw.  Robert Green mis-punched the resulting corner for a throw as a good spell of pressure ultimately came to nothing.

At the other end, a teasing ball hanging in the air across face of Everton goal evaded Martyn and might have been dangerous had there been any yellow shirts attacking the ball but the chance came to nothing following City's first real spell of sustained pressure around the half hour mark.  A little later on, a dangerous cross by Leon McKenzie found Damien Francis jumping but he glanced his effort wide off the back off his head.  It was the best chance for Canaries so far.

Everton remained the more potent going forward, however.  When a wonderful Kilbane cross was met by Bent, the former Ipswich man thought he'd silenced the Carrow Road boo-boys with a far post header but it deflected to safety off the head of Drury.

Six minutes before the interval, Everton were seemingly home and dry.  Gravesen slid a perfectly-weighted ball through for Bent who took one touch before slipping it under the advancing Green and into the far corner.  2-0 and, given the Blues' defensive record thus far, game over, you would have thought...

Nigel Worthington had other ideas and the fruits of what must have been an inspirational half time pep talk came as early as the 48th minute with a tremendous run by Leon McKenzie which he finished by nutmegging Nigel Martyn to make it 2-1.

Six minutes later, Alan Stubbs had to hook the ball off the line from the ever-threatening Huckerby after Martyn had hesitated uncharacteristically.  Then, three minutes after that, the scores were level. Mckenzie lost Stubbs, his marker, at the far post and his unchallenged header down from a corner found Francis two yards out; the midfielder couldn't miss.  2-2 and all the momentum now lay with Norwich.

On the face of it, Moyes's response was overtly negative but the result was quite the opposite.  The ageing war-horses of Ferguson and Watson were introduced for the admittedly quiet Cahill and the sprightly Osman.  Initially at least, the momentum remained with the home side and Tony Hibbert had to make a superb saving tackle in the area to snuff out the danger of yet another Huckerby raid from the left.

With 18 minutes left, though, Everton's superior strength proved decisive.  Gravesen barreled into the area and went down under a challenge but, while penalty claims were waved away, the ball came to Watson who flighted it to the back post and Ferguson headed back across goal and inside the far post.  3-2 and the Blues' massive traveling support, who had made Carrow Road sound like Goodison Park for much of the match, were bouncing in the stands again.

Still Norwich pressed, though, and a goalbound shot was blocked on the line by Carsley, apparently by his arm, although he would have known little about it.  Moyes's next move was to shut up shop at the back with the introduction of Joseph Yobo late on.

The Canaries pressed and threw everything they had the Everton goal but aside from an 89th-minute strike by Svensson that flew narrowly wide, they didn't threaten sufficiently.  After three minutes of injury time, the referee called time on Norwich's attempts to save the game and signalled another three points for the high-flying Blues who took second place in the Premiership, for a couple of hours at least.

Overall, this was a performance that showed Everton at their most effective and most vulnerable.  The first half was a masterclass in assured passing and effective offensive implementation of what is, superficially, a defensive formation.  As usual, there was support in numbers from midfield and it was no surprise that Kilbane became the latest midfielder to weigh in with a goal.

At the beginning of the second half, the Blues were overwhelmed when the game was taken directly to them, although both Norwich goals might be regarded as preventable with better defending.

Still, to dwell on the negatives doesn't do credit to the fact that Moyes's side had enough to prevail over a determined Norwich City and extend this unbelievable unbeaten sequence away from home.  Ferguson getting the match winner also makes a mockery of my match preview where I ruled him out as a goal threat and advocated the deployment of Nick Chadwick as super-sub.  I'm more than happy to be proved wrong!

Lyndon Lloyd