Season › 2011-12 › News

Mason and Potters pull off a mugging

Everton 0 - 1 Stoke City

The teams walked out to the sombre tones of the Welsh National Anthem before they gathered around the centre-circle and they were joined by a group of his former teammates from that era, along with Gary Speed's father Roger as a minutes's applause rang around Goodison Park.

And for the game, there is no Louis Saha so David Moyes has given Apostolos Vellios a rare opportunity to lead the line, with Drenthe still out injured.

There was plenty of good midfield possession for Everton in the first 10 mins but it didn't really lead to anything of note. Osman played in Bily nicely on the left and the cross looked good but ran through. A better move saw Coleman cross in well from the right and from a flick Bily had a very good chance at the far post but lashed at it horribly with his first-time volley.

A mistake by Baines was rescued by an excellent defensive header from Heitinga that led to Stoke's first corner. It was defended out to Whitehead, unmarked, whose fiirst-time shot was clipped past Howard at close range by Huth to give the vistors an undeserved lead.

Osman went down very easlily (okay, he divided) to win a very dangerous free-kick that that Baines took that deflected off the wall for an Everton corner that saw Sorensen flail at a punch but miss completely; however, there was no Blue shirts near enough to capitalise.

Everton continued to play their calm and patient build-up play in midfield, Osman and Fellaini catching the eye with some great balls, but Bily was letting the effort down sometimes with poor control and poor crossing.

Another Stoke corner out of nothing and so close to another Stoke goal, the flick-on header evading three well-placed Stoke strikers... something of a let-off for the Blues, whose initial confidence was visibly waning as Stoke looked more and more comfortable with their lead.

Osman threw in a pretty mean corner that Sorensen elected to punch away, which led to more laboured build-up and the hopeful cross clipped-in that had so far proved ineffective as the primary mode of Everton attack against a massed and bulky Stoke defence that was keeping its shape well.

A comedy moment with the diminutive Osman taking on the lanky Crouch in the corner and losing out to an unfair foul called by referee Mason that led to a dangerous moment for Howard, the ball flying past the angle. Baines delivered a really poor corner as the break loomed, and Fellaini looked to get on another corner but Shawcross had his arm around him, and was rewarded for his illegal play with a free-kick form Mason, much to the Belgian's very valid annoyance.

The pattern continued into the second half, with no changes to personnel or gameplan from David Moyes. It was increasingly obvious that Everton were going to struggle to make any impression on the big men in the Stoke defence but it took until the hour-mark of course before Moyes finally made a change, Bily off and Rodwell on.

A short corner and good cross found Cahill falling backwards and away from goal. Then another strange event, Cahil alert, trying to steal in on a shielded non-backpass and colliding with Sorensen, who collapsed in a heap while the Gwladys Street screamed for a penalty but all Mason gavee was a throw-in. Soensen required plenty of treatment and was roundly booed by the Blues crowd.

Everton were getting increasingly ragged as the quality of the football degenerated, one scrappy goalmouth incident with a poor touch from Osman came to nothing as Sorensen collapsed again, and finally went off, to a crescendo of boos form the rather mean-spirited Evertonians who had presumably decided it was all an act! On came Begovic with Stoke defenders continuing to foul Fellaini and others with impugnity.

Vellios was replaced by Stracqualursi for the last 15 mins, Moyes leaving Cahill on, convinced that a conventional 4-4-2 against the Stoke bullies was not going to work... Cahill's niggle factor may well be of value for the remaining period of this war of attrition.

Rodwell got the first half-decent shot of the game on target but it was inevitably blocked by the massed defenders as Moyes made the final change: Gueye on for Hibbert for the final 10 mins or so, and an Everton onslaught on the books.

A superb cross from Baines just evaded Heitinga who looked like he also was being impeded as Stoke started their time-wasting antics, compensated somewhat perhaps by 7 minutes of added time. But by this point, Everton had tried everything in the rather limited Moyes Playbook of Attacking Football.

The game again underlined Everton's paucity in the final third, although that was not helped by another dreadful decision from Mason, wrongly giving a corner when Coleman was clearly fouled. But Everton had failed to really test either of the Stoke goalies and their lack of bite up front was cruelly exposed in another horrible game for Blues fans.

Everton: Howard; Hibbert, Heitinga, Jagielka, Baines; Coleman, Fellaini, Osman, Bilyaletdinov; Cahill; Vellios.
Subs: Mucha, Neville, Rodwell, Distin, Stracqualursi, Gueye, Barkley.

Quotes or other material sourced from ToffeeWeb Match Report Page

• Match Summary
• Full Match Report

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