As with last season, we parked up in the Tesco car park and made a bee-line straight for the pub, The Beehive. The drizzly rain outside had by this point become almost torrential. With the game on Sky TV, I began to wonder why I bothered as I could have just watched it from the comfort of the couch. As it turned out, it seemed Everton felt the same.
We got into the ground nicely in time for kick-off. Two changes for the Blues: Cahill back in the team, replacing the injured Rodwell, and Anichebe in for the injured Saha. The bloke next to me stared at me in abject horror when I confirmed the Anichebe news to him. I wasn?t completely shocked by that decision as I thought Moyes would want a bigger target man in attack, it was more at the back where I was surprised with Jagielka over-looked for Heitinga despite our leaky defense.
We attacked the end opposite to us in the first half as the rain continued to fall. Bolton started the game with a purpose? as if they actually wanted to win it? you know, like most teams do and all teams should do. The opening goal was not so much a surprise, more a matter of time...
I couldn?t quite believe the referee gave Bolton a free kick in the first place? I actually thought he?d give it to Everton at first but Christ, quite how Gary Cahill was allowed the luxury of a free header from this is simply shocking? Cahill meeting the ball well, heading it downwards and in via a Heitinga deflection.
This awoke Everton a little and, as the half wore on, we got a good foothold in the game. Really Cahill oughta have scored on the volley when picked out with a super ball from Baines but he side-footed the opportunity wide. Otherwise, Arteta bent a powerful shot straight into Jaaskelainen?s arms. Apart from that, and the usual inept set-piece deliveries, there was nothing else to show from the first half. We hadn?t played well, though you?d seen enough in the half to suggest we?d be able to get ourselves back into the game.
Alas, this didn?t materialize. We began the second half reasonably well, at one point forcing quite a lot of pressure onto Bolton and spending a bit of time in their penalty area, though sadly with no shots or decent opportunities of note to get excited about.
On the hour mark, Moyes rolled the dice with a few changes, replacing Bilyaletdinov and Coleman with Beckford and Osman, thereby moving Anichebe out to the wing and Beckford up front. Everton didn?t have time to get going from this however as five minutes later we found ourselves two goals behind.
I?m not even sure how it all happened. I just remember Sturridge buying himself another kick from the linesman on the far side and the ball somehow, eventually falling for Sturridge in too much space on the left hand side of our penalty area. He wasted no time in smashing his volley into the net and that was game over.
What followed was humiliating. Players gave up. Players lost their heads. Players went missing. They just didn?t show enough fight to try and get back into the game and things were simple from there on in for Bolton who really could have scored more before the full-time whistle.
Sadly for us, we could have played all night and not scored. The closest we came was when substitute Baxter turned and got his shot on goal but Jaaskelainen was down to palm the ball round the post. Gary asked if we could leave early and it wouldn?t have been a bad idea in hindsight. Quite where I thought a goal was coming from I just don?t know, and come it didn?t as Everton succumbed to their eighth defeat of the campaign.
We got away from the ground quickly and it wasn?t long before we were home? We can now lick our wounds before next weekend's game?
So... Chelsea away next and on this showing the season will likely be over come next Saturday afternoon. A few observations, most of which were contributed to me by Graeme Sharp and disgruntled Evertonians on the Radio City football phone in:
- Defense needs sorting, and quickly - We?ve no money, so must be only club willing to aid Leicester City?s promotion push by loaning them our best goal scorer- Why did Anichebe play? He hasn?t got a goal in him. Doesn?t Vaughan offer a lot, lot more?- That Sturridge playing for Bolton on loan from Chelsea looks a cracking player. Lively, full of energy and bags of skill. Why the blazes couldn?t we have signed him if we had to let Yakubu go? He seems exactly what we need.We?ve got one rocky road now for the rest of the season, but wouldn?t it be just like Everton to now go and play well at Stamford Bridge before blowing it at home to Sunderland.
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Moyes is a great manager and as his hands tied by financial constraints to build a great team and develop the squad to be a consistent top 6 side. We have too many players who have not got the ability on the ball or the technical know-how to control games and give that killer pass.
What has happened to Arteta, the wizardry on the ball, the vision and being the player to deliver the goods. Why is Jags not in the side alongside Distin, when Heitinga is a headless chicken who lacks conviction in a challenge and nowhere near the same class defender as Jags?
Anichebe can't control a ball, does not score enough goals, hold the ball up well enough and does not know how to link play up. But we stick him up front and stick Beckford on the bench. Not the best striker in the world, but does know how to score goals when needed.
Bily has lost his confidence and is not a winger who ghosts past players, can't tackle and not enough pace to keep up with Baines.
Gueye, the secret weapon, is so secret that I must've missed the performances in the season build up and wait for the weapon to explode on the scene.
You can't fault players like Baines, Distin, Cahill, Howard, Neville, Saha when fit and Fellaini when the team is performaning well but when you have a lot of players not good enough or performing then it won't be too many great performances. We don't have enough on the field, never mind what we have on the bench to change games.
Please come on, Everton ? we want better and please someone buy this great club with more true footballing history than any other. We love you and always will but deserve better.
Replying to Eugene, Gerard and Carragher are great gentlemen and sporing opponents.
Looking at those players yesterday, I couldn't help but think that rather than not trying I was looking at a group who need a lift. Raining abuse down on the lads is going to get us nowhere. They can play! We've seen that against good teams this season.
I tend to think our worst perfoemances come when we are expecting us to do well. This season I think a fair amount of us thought we could push for top 4. Well we arent going to do that and we aren't going to get relagated. It's going to be (bar some cup herorics) a write off season.
Disappointing, yes, but after you've had a knock, the people who love you are meant to be there for you and we should be there for all of them.
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