Do the players really want CL football!!!

What a goal!!!!

I'm a lurker here at best, what I really thought it was our season a couple of weeks ago. Now injuries and inconsistencies have exposed us for what we really are, an over-achieving team with little depth.

I suppose I should be happy, 5th place and 70+pts is about as much I should wish from Everton. I expect it will be hard to even match that next season with United about spend £150m while we spend the majority of our £25m keeping or replacing our best striker. Ho hum.

Either way, we've had a great season. Most Premier League points in the club's history. Never out of the top 7. Champions League would've been icing on cake, but I'll take the Europa Leaque. Martinez has moved the team forward, and I look forward to the summer transfer activity.

I'm not gonna moan about the performance — them two own goals were enough to knock the stuffing out of any team... it just had to happen twice in an all important game!

Europa Cup it is then and terrific season with much to look forward to next season. Are we all rooting for Man City at Goodison then?

Being philosophical, is it more gutting to lose here or win all three games and still miss out as Arsenal win theirs? Obviously I would rather win all three, but after the Palace game it was always going to be a big ask to qualify. The injury list hasn't helped us, That bench was looking pretty bare of match changing options.

Lukaku was off the pace again today. Should have buried Deulofeu's cross and did very little apart from that. I know he can be an lethal at times but he seems to let the game bypass him as often as he puts in a winning display. His touch is terrible and I think that with the goalscoring potential in our team we would be be better off with a centre forward who can hold the ball up and bring the attacking midfielders into play more often. If I was Martinez I don't think I would risk nearly all of my transfer budget on Romelu. £12-15m would be worth the risk, but at £20m plus and on huge wages I think we could invest our cash more wisely.

Feeling deflated, but I have to look for the positives over the whole season. Europa League football next year, our highest points total, an attractive brand of football and some outstanding performances against teams we have struggled against for years. The fact that I feel disappointed shows how much Martinez has raised expectations in his short time here!

I wonder if Barkley has been affected by this supposed gangster threat he had. The worst possible performance he could have put in particularly with Woy watching.

Onwards to City, but unless Pardew's travelling circus beat Arsenal, 4th is almost certainly over.

Last week when we didn't have the chance to go 4th we won comfortably yet today just as against Palace we implode and self destruct.

What have we learned today?

Ross Barkley should not go to the World Cup, it's too soon he is nowhere near ready, infact and I say this with a heavy heart but if somebody offers us crazy money such as £40 million then I would take it and do what I could to get Lallana.
I don't mean to sound to hard on Ross but face it, he is a good driving midfielder but has not got an ounce of creativity in him...we need a midfielder who can actually play a forward ball in the Arteta mould.

Deulofeu????

We keep heating how exciting he is but Sterling across the park totally eclipses him week in week out...
If he does go back to Barcelona which I very much doubt he will then we can replace him with somebody who will be more involved in matches.

McGeady looks ok but you can tell straight off there's no goals in him Slag Distin off but the defence misses him more than Jagielka even.

What a shite weekend.

Liverpool win the League and we know our chances of the best opportunity in years to see Champions League football gone.

They are shit scared of fourth and the Champions League with most of the team brainwashed into thinking fifth is success.

For me, it isn't the final results against Crystal Palace and Southamptons it's the manner of the defeats, they just don't want it badly enough.

Spurs will probably win today leaving us nervously looking over our shoulders.

Even at Newcastle when it turned out to be a good result, it could have gone pear-shaped prior to Everton's opener and to a lesser extent Fulham where only a last quarter of the game revival saw us take the points. It is not good enough to be awesome at home and insipid away from Goodison. Players attitudes have to improve before we can truly count ourselves as a top team. How much motivation do these players need? When a top four place or even higher is at stake...

I always feel sympathy for the travelling army of Blues fans who leave at ungodly hours of the day and arrive home many hours later but have nothing to show for all that effort, perhaps Roberto should make the team travel to these games with the supporters and they could see how much effort it takes. The least the players could do is to put on a performance, even if the result goes against us.

Own goals aside, we didn't score so gave up points to Arsenal.

Its difficult to think of games this season where we've lost points to teams who haven't parked the bus and done us on the counter. It's this season's failing.

Southampton played well though and... bollocks. I'm off the pub.

Sadly the top-end of the league has gotten stronger, and will continue to do so as I reckon a big-spending Man Utd will return to contention.

Plenty to build on, and whilst the Europa League is a double-edged sword, I'm thoroughly confident in Bobby.

We might still win like we have done away this season but how many of those wins were convincing away performances? It's the same reason we bottle big games, the same reason our record at the top sides is woeful, and the same reason we'll come fifth this season – weak weak players who aren't ready to win. They are where they are in the league because they are so talented, if they could add any sort of winning mentality, we'd be trophy winners in no time.

I'd send Lukaku, Deulofeu, and I hate to say it but Barry back as well. All three were on fire when they were earning their place; now they have it, all three are just going through the motions. Barry doesn't have the pace to play away from home and the other two are bone idle.

Lack of squad depth certainly hasn't helped - both Mirallas and Distin missed badly and nobody to sub Lukaku or Naismith left Martinez with few options.

Dont get on Barkleys back, he's young and consistency is difficult (see Sterling some months ago, now apparently he is Ronaldo).

Why is it I'd rather Everton played a form team than one going through a bad run - we lose those games too often for it to be coincidence.

Lukaku has seemingly completely run out of steam - successful clubs need more than one top striker.

You raise a good point about the signs of a team in transition. Remember the last couple of seasons when we were all laughing merrily at the Shite losing to mid-table clubs but beating the top 4 teams? Hopefully we can see a similar upturn in consistency once Roberto has had a couple of seasons and has identified a couple of 20-goal-a-season strikers.

Analysis would feel like - 'Apart from that Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the show?'

(I'll stick 50 nicker on Newcastle winning at Arsenal though – that is now a fucking nap.)

Distin
Jagielka
Mirallas
Kone
Pienaar
Gibson
Oviedo
I'll throw Traore in the mix as well.

It's no wonder we look tired. McCarthy and Barry play 90 minutes of every game, as do Lukaku, Baines and Coleman.

I do find it hard to criticise this bunch of players, even if we do have an off day.

As for Barkley and his personal problems as an excuse, didn't that prick across the park have worse at a similar age? Didn't stop him going on to lift the CL.

I for one would not be unhappy to see him go if the right money was offered; sure, he'll have his apologists... but I'm still waiting to see him actually change a game we struggle to get anything from.

The last thing we need is the Europa joke cup. Thursday night footy with a not so big squad IMO will only hinder the development of the team.

CL would have suited us much better, less games and more time to recover, if I was Roberto and you could get away with it I'd say thanks but no thanks, you can keep the sham of a competition which is designed to put pressure on the best of the rest in squad terms and keep the cash cow equilibrium where the powers that be want it.

Give it the respect it deserves and play a gang of kids.

Send Lukaku back and get Bony, a player who is more advanced than Lukaku.

Some players dipped today who are usually better. In the end it's just a case of being better more often that you're not.

Lukaku is nowhere near consistent enough. Because of his youth and his early form, I'd like to keep him, but definitely not for silly money.

Last time I checked, the gap between Thursday and Sunday is exactly the same as Wednesday and Saturday. Yes, there are extra games but if you want to be a top club you have to learn to suck them up. Putting this bunch of losers under pressure more regularly is what we need to do.

If they can get into regular knock-out ties then maybe we won't go with our pants down to Anfield every season. They have to realise that you can't just win as long as it's 3 o'clock Saturday at Goodison Park – you need to win lunch-time kick-offs away from home at strange grounds on TV.

This club should not be passing up any opportunity for a trophy. The fans love extra games, and quite frankly this club more than most others needs to start paying its fans back a bit more for decades of nearly theres, embarassments, ridicule at the hands of local rivals, and broken promises.

I paid a months subscription with them to watch the Liverpool defeat, at least I didn't pay to watch this one.

The worst 45 minutes from ANY Everton team ever?

Really?

I don't think Barkley can play in midfield, the game just passes him by and his best position is playing off the striker, but with Naismith in good form it would have been wrong to drop Naismith.

Also, let's remember that Lukaku has played a lot more games this year than he has in the past, he made a lot of appearances for West Brom from the subs bench. Should he stay, then his first touch has to improve

I have opined all season that Barry is too expensive for a club of our limited means, even as a free transfer.

He would doubtless be looking for a couple of million over 3 or 4 years plus £50-60k per week and we need to be gradually getting rid of the over-30s rather than signing more on permanent deals. He has served his purpose admirably as has Lukaku but we need different players for permanent deals. I like the look of Bony but Roberto will have someone lined up.

Have to say I agree too with Jim about Ross (I am in a very agreeable mood today!!). Looks great driving forward with the ball but isn't an outstanding passer or ball winner and maybe £40m would be worth more to us at this point? Not entirely sure on that one but, if the offer was made, I would be sorely tempted Yes, he is young and will become more consistent but he hasn't played well this year apart from one or two games.

We must be pragmatic and accept that Top 6 (hopefully 5th) is a great first season and the players' attitude in these games will improve as the old guard fall away, the new younger guys become more prominent and most of all if we can find an inspirational captain. I keep posting how I abhor everything about the captain across the park but he certainly is an inspirational figure there and it is something we lack at present.

Regarding today, yes, the performance was poor... but looking at the season overall, Champions League at the start of the season was just a pipe dream but became a possibility in January that was not supported by the chairman and board when it mattered.

After January the manager and players have done a magnificent job in keeping our hopes alive but unfortunately injuries, with a small sqad and a lack of lucky breaks not going for us, Champions League qualification seems to have passed us by.

Anyone who blames the defenders for the own goals – if you have played in a game and scored an own goal, put your hand up and say you meant it.

What happens if we win the Europa League and finish 6th in the PL.....and another team finishes 5th in PL and wins the CL. Would this mean only 1st and 2nd in PL will get CL spots?

Oh well, the Europa League it is then.

And I don't buy into this bollocks it would/could fuck our season up.

If we'd qualified for the CL we'd play Wednesday-Saturday, Europa League will be Thursday-Sunday, so by reckoning it's a 3 day gap both times, so what's the actual difference?

Ok, we may have played CL on a Tuesday night, but we'd have played the previous Saturday so that's another 3 day gap.

Yet, when Lukaku was presented with 2 chances in front of goal, he unintentionally failed to score. So the moral of the story with today's game, don't try and score intentionally, but unintentionally. And Everton through Lukaku could have scored twice.

When Everton went 2 down at the 31st minute, I felt that Roberto failed to react, by not changing things around by going for broke by bringing on McGeady and bringing off Barry (when Everton at this point did not need another central holding midfielder with McCarthy on the pitch as well) and pushing Deulofeu into a more central role, where he would have caused the Southampton lumbering central defender's more difficulties, than Everton having to rely upon Naismith at this point in the match.

The referee and his assistant compounded Everton's ill fortunes when the assistant had a stinker, when he flagged for off side, when Deulofeu was a yard on side and through on goal only to be pulled back, that would have seen the Southampton defender sent off instead of been rewarded with a free kick for the wrong off side decision.

The referee also had a stinker by not giving 2 stone wall penalties, one, when Osman was tripped in the box only to be booked for diving, and when McCarthy was dragged back, also, in the penalty area. All offenses happened in front of the referee and assistants. They should be given appointments at spec savers before they officiate any more matches.

Just field the reserves against City. If we fuck up our own campaign but gift the title to the shite I swear to fucking god.....

Ultimately with that bench Martinez did the best he could. As with most losses this season it has been the players who have let Martinez down. Again I believe Martinez gave us the platform to win the game as Moyes did many times last year, but how do you tell Lukaku not to miss two headers from two yards? How do you tell your centrebacks not to be undone by every cross or high ball that comes into the box? How do you tell your wideman not to give the ball away every time he gets it? You can't account for sheer player stupidity.

Any comeback soundly snuffed out by lethargic play, a dodgy offside and the ref incorrectly booking Osman when a stick on penalty.

You play two or three times the amount of games in the Europa.

Look at the past winners as mentioned, they are big teams who play in leagues that do not have as many games as us and have better investment than us.

I understand the away days and the memories etc but I'm trying to look at the bigger picture unless BK can come up with a bucket of Nelson Eddies to fund a good crack at it.

Puzzling to me why Barry wasn't taken off for Osman or McGeady while we're chasing the game. Taking off two of our most creative players in Barkley and Deulofeu instead of Barry, who toyed with a second yellow multiple times in the second half, seemed the wrong decision both times.

No moaning about the ref when we stick two in our own net.

We will come back better and stronger next season and, if Newcastle pull off a miracle a lot of you will be creaming yourselves once again.

I was desperate for CL next season but I'm still not counting us out until the Gooners win their next two games. Whatever happens now I'm a proud, and confident, Blue.

A good season all in all but we need to improve next season. I think next season will be the real test as everyone will know how we play and will have adapted to us.

We can't turn up our noses IF we get Europa League as looks highly likely. (We can be 6th and get it – right?) It will help to develop players, will help to attract/retain players and give some youngsters a chance to show what they can do. It represents progress and next season there is no reason not to believe we will be better again.

On another note, for all the hype surrounding Lukaku, Barkley and Deulofeu, for me, John Stones is a far better prospect and player than all three, he's immense.

I'd play a blended youth/experienced team and treat the games as a chance to give bit-part players etc a run out.

Don't underestimate how important a European campaign of any description is to signing (and keeping) the likes of a Bony etc.

Today was just a clusterfuck. From McCarthy's slip in the first minute, to Osman making the ref's decision easy (he was already on his way down, but it was a penalty, and Lovren is a cunt for waving an imaginary card as he was getting up, he KNEW it was a foul. Oliver had already made his mind up).

Coleman and Alcaraz as the two goalscorers (the latter seemingly able to get onto our corners after last week's cameo), we'd have taken that before kick-off...

For fuck's sake Everton, you always do this.

Surely we can get a point at Hull.........

Martinez has been superb this season it's not the position that I am worried about too much but 69 points is incredibly unlucky to not be in the top 4 so, if we get 70 plus points, this will be the best season we have had since I started watching us. We do however clearly need more depth within the team and I am not convinced with Lukaku; he does not offer much including goals, so I agree we should let him go back to Chelsea and look at other cheaper targets

I think this has been a reaction to pressure, plus changes to the defence and too many players having to play all the time as we have no others to swap them with.

The players have given their all this season, some I will agree, especially Lukaka and Deulofeu blow too hot and cold for my liking. But this season reminds me of Liverpool last season. Winning the big games and being crap against clubs they should easily win against. We had one of the smallest squads in the league at the start of the season and we all know about the terrible injuries.

Man Utd would need to win all their remaining games and Everton to not get any more points for them to overtake us and I can’t see that happening... although, to listen to the radio, you would think Giggs was "The Chosen One" and Moyes had never been there.

It’s a shame as this I think gave us our best chance of the top 4 as others will regroup for next season. But I always think things happen for a reason. Lukaka will definitely be off now to who knows where so at least we won’t be spending what transfer dosh we have on one player.

BT Sports fixtures, doesn’t make good reading.
City A
Shite H
Stevenage FA Cup
Shite A
Chelsea A
Southampton A
City H

So, four League Defeats and one League draw and one win against Stevenage when we lost Oviedo.

It’s Catch-22. European football the plus, but puts a strain on a small squad and Premier League results WILL suffer being the minus.

Shocking performance today though... young Gerard seemed clueless, as did Lukaku for the most part. It almost seemed like we didn’t want it.

You watch Arsenal go and get beat as well, just to make our result even worse!!

Even though we were utter shite today, I still feel we were denied at least a point by disgraceful officials’ decisions.

On the basis of recent performances Lukaku is not worth £2 million never mind £25 million. Mourhino is a pretty good judge of top players and you can see why he does not want Lukaku. Naismith has overshadowed him in every respect.

Just when we start to get a bit of belief back, we blow it again. So disappointing.

As for today.... pah.

As for the Europa League, I think we should all be wanting us to be in it; the whole point in doing well in the league is to get into these types of competitions — what’s the point in not wanting it this season just for a better chance to be in it next season?

Also, it seems to me that Duffy is better than Alcaraz.

We are more than capable of getting another player to work with McCarthy who will be seen as a snip at £13 million next season.

I’ve got over the disappointment a bit now. I always think Roberto looks anxious when being interviewed prior to a match it’s all those lines on his forehead that do it. Don’t forget he’s a young manager and also still learning about our team and players.
Europa League will be ours next season and we just have to accept it. We will have missing players back and I expect Roberto to come back from Brazil with some good signings and no doubt more loans.

On what basis is Duffy better than Alcaraz, Andy? Alcaraz was excellent last week as he was in the reverse Southampton fixture in December. Alcaraz was also very good in Jags and Distin’s absence in January. He had a bit of a shocker in the Anfield Derby but apart from that he’s been very dependable.

Even without that "goal" had the penalty been awarded for the clear foul on Osman, we all know that Baines would have scored. Again it would have been a different game.

Agreed that the performance was not great, but we all know that goals change matches.

Btw Everton will be in Europa League unless Man Utd win all their remaining games and we lose all ours. Their goal difference would then be better than ours.

It’s completely MY fault

Sunderland, Palace, The Mary’s

Saw EVERY single one coming a mile off, and did I do fuck all
’Corse not

So now we can throw the Prem Title to Citeh.......(well we could help.......)

This doesn’t excuse a truly woeful performance by all concerned as the Saints themselves hardly troubled Howard, despite their overall possession.

The Players, Martinez and the Refs must have got pissed up somewhere late last night. All fucked this up today. The Players were so sloppy with the ball. Martinez should have swapped Naismith and Delboy after 20 mins, he should not have taken off Barkley either. The Linesmen and Ref made shocking decisions.

What a day to forget. Europa, here we come.

I was told to "keep it real" when I championed Seamus Coleman. In fact, some on this site suggested I was related to him. I’ll happily admit to being more wrong than right but I was right about Coleman and I’m even more convinced about Duffy. This time next year there will humble pie waiting for many doubters.

Back to today’s game; it was a tired show but we must hang on for Europa league. Roberto has raised our expectations to such an extent that fifth will seem a little disappointing. However, I really believe we are moving forward.

Oh come on Jay.

I’d have replaced them both after 30 mins, it was clear we were losing ground in midfield, and had no outlet out wide.

I’d also caution the sanctification of young Stones. Yes the lad clearly has class and is going to be a good ’un, but he was seriously culpable for the second goal (to go along with two cock-ups against Palace). He needs to quickly learn his "muck and bullets" defensive duties.

In the end the lack of depth of our squad has cost us, but Everton being Everton, we’ll probably stuff City next weekend.

It seems to happen most seasons, our best players get ling injuries. Even when we rotate players get knocks, Baines got another one today, McCarthy has been carrying one, Naismith now too. Certain other clubs just play the same 11/13 players every game, don’t strengthen in January and don’t get any injuries. Its a good showing that we are were we are considering the injuries we’ve had. Gibson, Kone, Pienaar, Oviedo Traore - could easily have been worth 6 extra points.

The thinness of the squad was shown up today through unfortunate injuries to important and the board should have boosted the numbers in January-look at today’s bench.

I am disappointed we couldn’t see it through but I am not surprised. My blame is firmly on the board for not looking at the league position when the window was open and really giving it a go.
Its been a really good season with some really good footy played.

On another note, Roberto said at the start of the season that it would be January before we saw the best of Delboy. He didn’t say which January. Flatters to deceive. And he doesn’t put in a shift – again he was trying to prove the first law of thermodynamics, conserving energy over time.

When I said "dependable", I meant when he’s been called upon. Yes he’s been injured a lot (I’m no disputing that fact) but you said Duffy is a better player than Alcaraz. There’s absolutely no evidence to support your claim. Duffy has been playing well at a team that has just been relegated from the Championship.

When I’ve seen Duffy play for the Under-21s, he looks to lack pace and his distribution is poorer than that of Distin and Jags. Don’t get me wrong: he looks positionally sound and is good in the air, but to say he is better than Alcaraz is a bit premature in my opinion.

I hope Duffy gets his chance in the Europa League playing alongside Stones.

Today, we looked beaten after 60 seconds, do we have a sports psychologist at Everton? The Redshite do.

There was no one even talking to eachother in the side... No leadership on the pitch at all.

Saints were nothing great but absolutely waltzed to an easy victory.

I’ve read on the BBC match report that Deloufeu was our most dangerous player?? Jesus Christ. He was utter gash.

Here’s for a good performance against Shiteh!

Only at Everton could we be upset after a run if 8 wins in 10 !!!

We played better in second half but were still poor. Some awful decisions went against us in that period – offside against Boy Wonder and two cast-iron penalty shouts. I think we should consider an appeal over the Osman booking for no other reason than to show the stupidity of the decision (I know we won’t) and someone must explain how the ref thinks holding a player down inside the box isn’t a penalty – it is beyond me and obviously McCarthy.

I don’t deny Southampton were the better side but what really galls is they didn’t force a serious save from Howard till injury time (his save was probably our best moment). We looked jaded across the field and the injuries showed the lack of depth in the squad.

I agree that we need a new centre half as cover or to replace Distin (who was badly missed today and I don’t think we’d have lost with him in the side). Moyes’s squads were characterised by versatility – players who could operate in a number of positions have left the squad so we’ve lost something. Might be worth pondering.

Yes, we’ve had a wonderful run since the cup defeat. This is what makes two strange defeats hard to take. The past fortnight or so has been – Arsenal, Man Utd, Palace and now Southampton has seen us lose to two teams we should have beaten.

5th/6th is a season to be proud of and I am but why can ’t we see it through to CL?

Mistakes, that’s why it’s what we do best and usually they cost us big time.

Everton don’t have CL mentality, nowhere near.

How many times does he play a forward ball?

When does he put a good cross in?

Same for Deulofeu.

All hype at the minute.

There are other young players doing more than these lads on a more consistent game by game basis.

Next season our rivals will all spend big and what will we do?.

Sign Traore on loan and one or two others, I feel sorry for Martinez with our boards lack of ambitions.

Sure, we’ll look likely to do so but it needs more than a bright-eyed manager and players playing to the peak of their capabilities in two thirds of the games. It requires INVESTMENT.

Incidentally, my old man remarked that Sandy Brown was looking down on the boys this afternoon and decided that now he had left this mortal coil, it was time for a new custodian of his infamous Own Goal Crown.

Step up Antolin and Seamus. And the crown goes to............?

I think City could well do us and it will all come down to Hull. No EL after this season and 69 or 70 points would be a real kick in the teeth!!

Most of our wins came against sides that tried to match us toe to toe. Most of our defeats were against sides that parked the bus and counter attacked. When the need arises even the great Barca resort to defensive negativity. I am concerned that all out attack will cause heartaches similar to today.

But we never really played with any cohesion or flair today and lacked confidence in our ability to play the game, it is something that Roberto will have to drill into his team when you have a problem it is up to the players to take responsibility and solve it. But it is our lack of real depth in the squad which is going to cost us again.

Snatching 5th (defeat) from the jaws of 4th (victory). Bottling it for you since Ian Storey-Moore (at least).

The Europa League – we haven’t got the squad quality or numbers for 38 games in the Prem, never mind another 10+ that will use up the odd ’rest days’ we do have.

Lukaku – on this season, what is his real (not potential, real) worth? £10M max. I fear all he will ever be is a rich man’s Big Vic / Heskey.

Back to LMF, of all the things you can coach into players, sadly skill and attitude are not on the list; yes, you can do a bit with technique, effort and experience sometimes knocks a few rough edges off, but skill and attitude are finite interior qualities and what you are given is what you got.

So on and so on ad-kneejerk-infinitum.

We’re all totally beating ourselves up over ONLY getting 5th... the first 3 drawn games coming back to bite us in the bum.

Still – If you can’t take a joke, you shouldn’t’ve joined.

He wasn’t too clever for the 2nd goal either. Brilliant on the ball maybe,.....but he is also a goal-leaking machine. Anfield, the Emirates, Palace, Southampton, to name just a few. Do me a favour. I’ve seen McCarthy almost hit him on more than one occasion. At the Emirates, after the Giroud tap-in, I thought Macca was about to commit GBH. Red faced with rage, he bent forward, screamed at Stones and probably reminded him that it was the FA Cup.

The lad is a fantastic ball player and a joy to watch. Unfortunately, his main requirement is to stop the opposition from scoring goals and, in that area, he’s not doing too well, Fingers crossed he will eventually put things right but it will need a massive improvement in his anticipation and bravery. Still only 19, there’s plenty of time for him to learn the art of Premier League defending.

Harold, some good points there, I sometimes wonder if Stones could make a good defensive/ midfielder, the way he carries the ball forward and can pick a pass and he wouldn’t be found turning his back quite as much as he does. His reading of the game is exceptional for a young lad.

Make no mistake Southampton are a very good team with a very good manager.

We will bounce back and I am sure there are great things ahead with Roberto at the helm.I am sure now that he has had a full season to look at players he will know exactly what is required for next season.

Also, they would never do this but, if I was involved with the Club, I’d gather video evidence of all the dogshit penalties Suarez and Sturridge have been awarded and compare them with Osman’s yesterday and send it to the FA. Along with a bag of actual dogshit.

Sure the team were a bit off (esp. Barkley) but the ref. really didn’t help our cause. We had 3 clear penalty shouts (shirt pull on Barry from corner when he was about to head the ball, as well as the Osman and McCarthy incidents). There was also the Delboy "offside". For all of above incidents, the commentary I was listening to David Pleat (who was pretty fair I thought) agreed that ref had got all 4 decisions wrong!

I watched the match on TV at a mates on Saturday – yes, we didn’t play well... but I think that some Evertonians are becoming like the TV pundits. I think that the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal would struggle if they had as many players out injured as we have. Poldolski is a well established German International, without checking I think that he has got around 80 caps, yet he is not a regular starter for Arsenal. I bet Roberto wishes he could have such experience coming on from the bench.

Given the number of injuries that we have had, I think Martinez has done a brilliant job keeping us in contention for a Champions League place. Yes, it looks beyond us now, but when was the last time we could talk about challenging for 4th?

I mentioned pundits – my mate was telling me the other week that Hoddle was on and was saying that we had been lucky with injuries this season!!! Sorry but I expect better from some of these experts, if he had spent half-an-hour doing some research, he would have found that the opposite was the case.

Yes, the result and the performance were not what we wanted and needed, but that shouldn’t be allowed to overshadow what has been a very good season. I don’t watch BT on a regular basis, but my mate was telling me that David James had predicted Everton to finish 17th this season, and Neville Southall was quoted as saying that Martinez as choice of manager showed a lack of ambition by the club. Perhaps James and Southall could team up as the next "Chuckle Brothers"!