Season › 2011-12 › News

Big Vic returns to bang one home

Michael Kenrick , 1 January, 168comments  |  Jump to most recent
West Bromwich Albion 0 - 1 Everton
It's like a new signing... with Victor Anichebe returning to the squad after a long injury, and scoring a brilliant goal by Everton standards to win this New Year slog for the Blues. Jack Rodwell started the game but was the first to be subbed before the hour, Stracqualursi and Anichebe coming on for Saha and Neville after 65. It was Anichebe who spun brilliantly under huge pressure to score from close range with 4 minutes left.

No Royston Drenthe, along with the expected absence of Marouane Fellaini but it was something of a surprise to see Jack Rodwell start the game, as it was to see Anichebe on the bench; no surprise, however, that Ross Barkley would spend another entire game watching from the bench.

As expected, it was a very poor game to watch with both sides seemingly playing for that 0-0 draw and the point they started with. But in the second half, a New Year bug got up David Moyes's arse and somehow persuaded him to throw on a pair of forwards in place of two of the worst of his old and increasingly useless favourites, Neville and Saha.

It was a cracking finish by Victor Anichebe, for his first goal of the season, but Everton had some terrible defending by Paul Scharner to thank for this latest last-gasp strike. Scharner headed Tony Hibbert's cross back across goal and Anichebe was in the right place to turn swiftly and bang the ball home under strong pressure from a posse of defenders, much to teh immense joy of himself and the hordes of travelling Blues.

Two key substitutions by David Moyes appear to have created the impetus that finally won it for Everton, with Anichebe on the left and Stracqualursi on the right providing something different that finally paid off and brought home three brilliant points for Everton in this mid-table clash that puts the Blues back in the top half of the table.

Everton: Howard, Hibbert, Distin, Jagielka, Baines, Rodwell (57' Gueye), Neville (65' Anichebe), Heitinga, Osman, Cahill, Saha ('65 Stracqualursi).
Subs not used: Mucha, McFadden, Bilyaletdinov, Barkley.

Quotes or other material sourced from ToffeeWeb Match Report Page

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