QPR Blown Away

Unlike our last home game versus Hull City, Everton were cheered off the pitch. Lets try and kick on now at Southampton...

Gaz couldn't make this one so it was up to me to drive and after picking up Ste we joined the others in the pub with plenty of time until kick off.

We saw the team news in the pub and whilst disappointed to see James McCarthy hadn't made the team we were all pleased to see Steven Naismith return and plunged straight back into the first team. With Gareth Barry suspended, Ross Barkley was given an opportunity to play in central midfield alongside Muhamed Besic. QPR featured ex-Blue Richard Dunne and Evertonian Joey Barton. I was encouraged by the sight of QPR's substitutes bench as it was filled with has been's. Rio Ferdinand, Clint Hill, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Niki Kranjcar, Karl Henry and Bobby Zamora the six outfield players on the bench.

Elder statesmen Samuel Eto'o, Stephen Pienaar, Antolin Alcaraz and Arouna Kone were included on our bench, as were the more youthful Luke Garbutt and John Stones. We made the short walk up to Goodison Park, just evading the rain. Through the turnstiles (naturally we chose the one with the biggest queue and with one turnstile shut!) and we were into our seats in time for kick off. Neil Swarbrick got the game under way, Everton attacking towards the Park End in the first half.

QPR began with intent and got into our penalty area a few times though Everton were resilient enough at the back. Muhamed Besic did well in the midfield to break up their rhythm whilst Steven Naismith's running kept them busy at the back.

We had created a few openings though weren't exactly on top of the game. We were getting up the pitch too slowly. Ross Barkley had enough of that and followed up a surge up the pitch with a rocket of a shot which flew into the top corner of the Park End net giving Rob Green no chance. Gary swears it took a little knick off the defender on the way through though it seemed a clean strike from my view. Anyway, we were one ahead and whichever way you look at it that Barkley ran at them direct and had a go was the reason we scored the goal.

This directness rubbed off on Kevin Mirallas who ran at the defence himself and just cleared the crossbar by about a foot with a drive from the edge of the penalty box. QPR were on the ropes a little bit by this point and with a free kick Kevin Mirallas tried again. This one definitely deflected and wrong-footed Rob Green and the ball ended up in the back of the net. 2-0 and though it was hardly a classic Everton performance we had grown into the game and scored goals with a bit more directness to our play. That's not to say we still weren't wasteful with the ball on some occasions. More than once we had a free kick inside the opposition half and ended up cluelessly passing the ball back to Howard.

I'm all for playing the ball from the back and building attacks though not just so we can then get a certain distance into the opposition half and then go back again. Thankfully we were more direct at times and I want to see more of that from Everton. I want us to mix it up a bit more and make us unpredictable to play against. I suppose, in a way, that teams seemed to have sussed us out now is making us unpredictable and our pacey players like Barkley, Mirallas and Naismith are starting to take players on a lot more. Lesson headed by Roberto Martinez one hopes.

Having been subjected to some bazaar dance on the pitch at half time it was a relief to see Everton finish the game off with a goalscoring return to action from fans favourite Steven Naismith. Aiden McGeady, who had a pretty good match, managed to beat the full back and get his cross into the box for Naismith to nod home. 3-0, and we could begin to dream of seeing Arouna Kone!

Off the pitch and there was some strange activity in the Upper Bullens Road stand when some bloke decided to start cheering on Everton stripped down to his blue underpants. This brought smiles all around the ground. At 3-0 Everton relaxed a little and QPR had a bit more of the ball. McGeady and Lukaku were given a bit of a rest to give Pienaar and Eto'o some game time, however it was substitute Bobby Zamora who scored the final goal of the game, tapping home after Mutch's effort was saved to grab a consolation for QPR.

There was still time for a massive disappointment and that was the injury to Kevin Mirallas. It was a bad tackle by Mutch and it was disappointing that he did not even go and check on Kevin when he was obviously in some distress. However I didn't really blame him an awful lot for going through Mirallas as had our Belgian have just passed the ball (which he had a lot of time and options to do) he would have been fine. Instead he was pratting around on the ball and goading the player into the tackle, so it probably wasn't that surprising Mutch went through him...even if, as I say, it was a bad tackle.

Kone was introduced and made a reasonable impact. He had a hand in Samuel Eto'o hitting the post with the ball bouncing back off Rob Green and somehow not going into the goal. A ball across the box, I think from Eto'o was also just missed by Kone. What a return to action that would have been for him.

Full time swiftly followed and, unlike out last home game versus Hull City, Everton were cheered off the pitch. Lets try and kick on now at Southampton and lets all hope Kevin Mirallas' injury isn't too bad.

I'm not going to St. Mary's so have a great Christmas Day one and all. See you on Boxing Day.

Player Ratings:
Howard: Not great kicking and a few hazardous punches rather than catches but otherwise fine. 6
Baines: Not quite at his best. Maybe I'm being too hasty but with the promise of Luke Garbutt and the threat of his contract running down would now maybe represent a good opportunity to cash in on Leighton Baines whilst he still has market value? 6
Distin: Excellent. Very solid. 7
Jagielka: Also excellent. 7
Coleman: Like Baines, is struggling for form. Will get back to his best sooner or later. 6
Besic: My man of the match. He did a few dumb things, I think he always will, but he made several tackles and was busy throughout. Still rough at the edges though is certainly improving game by game. Certainly his best game yet tonight. 7
Barkley: Had a splendid game and capped it off with a great goal. A bit in and out at times but his use of the ball and ability to run at players really keeps us ticking. I would like to see him play more in that position. He's learnt to stay on his feet a lot more also. 7
Mirallas: Had a good game but why, oh why could he not have just avoided injury and played that pass to Baines? We could really do without him being injured this time of year as he really does make an impact for us. 7
McGeady: Had a good game. Showed quick feet and got himself into good attacking positions. May be needed at Southampton if, as expected, Mirallas doesn't make it. 7
Naismith: Great to see him back. Not the most gifted player but boy does he work and he gets his rewards. Always a goal threat. 7
Lukaku: A little disappointing really. Didn't put himself about as well as he can do. 6

Substitutes:
Pienaar (for McGeady): His flicks didn't quite work out unfortunately. 6
Eto'o (for Lukaku): Unlucky not to score at the end. 6
Kone (for Mirallas): Ran at the defenders and made a bit of a splash. Could be key for the remainder of the season yet. 6

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