Lukaku: Play to the last whistle

Need to be more ruthless.....

He explained he went to shake the hand of a friend who offered his congratulations... the rest is history. He lost focus, and the tournament to Gary Player because he believed he had won.

Happens to us all at some stage but we learn to cope with distractions if we want to win. Beating ourselves up about it won't help.

Remember when Cahill and Arteta scored twice in injury time against Man Utd to turn a 3-1 loss into a 3-3 draw.

Sides lose good leads all the time. Just have to hope the players feel the pain as much as we do. Learn from it and don't become complacent again.

We should've been as equally fired up to put the game to bed.

I agree, it can and does happen. Negatives from yesterday are losing a two-goal lead and then not closing the game out after the third goal. Positives are us scoring three goals.

They are on a learning curve, mistakes like this will add to their game management hopefully. We know they have the ability; we need the application and the nous to go with it.

I remain confident in the manager's progress. It is a mid- to long-term journey to get a team regularly competing for top four without significant transfer funds.

If it looks like we're going to be conceding a few then we need to be scoring more. That was the Keegan approach: score more than you concede and you win, simple!!

Just a pity that the RS are in 6th position tonight - where we should be.

Ah well, a new week starts tomorrow.....

A match to win on Tuesday evening too.

I'm sick and tired of listening to excuses as to why we fucked up and hearing "hopefully we shall learn". It's all very well citing the RS or Man Utd surrendering leads but they actually do learn and have multiple trophies to back that up. We don't learn and have won fuck all for 20 years. It's pitiful seeing people make excuses for Martinez. He fucked up and didn't know how to change it when the chips were down.

To hear the fans being criticised is also pitiful, the faithful who got up at the crack of dawn to support these pampered fuckwits, ecstatic at what they thought to be a winner after sitting through 45 minutes of woeful football only to be let down at the death and they get blamed. Shameful from people who sit in the luxury of their armchairs.

Martinez needs to take a good hard look at himself and also the character of the players. Everyone could see things needed changing and yet again he did nothing. Plan B just doesn't exist. When he does deign to make changes he does so like for like. Doesn't change a formation or way we play, just more of the same.

I don't like the style of our manager, not because I don't like him, he comes across as a very nice bloke, I just don't think he is good enough. All the frail tendencies of last season have not been rectified and we look as shaky as a pile of jelly at the back.

If we were a rubbish team then I wouldn't be so annoyed but we are not. We have the makings of a really good team but our fuckwit manager has no idea how to kill a game off and how to defend. Until he gets in some kind of defensive coach that actually knows what he is doing, then we will continually flatter to deceive and that is the sole responsibility of the manager.

Concentrate for 90 minutes, be awake to defend and be able to change a game with substitutions and not stand there like a startled rabbit in the headlights; otherwise, just fuck off and give someone a chance who actually knows what they're doing.

The problem I had with the invasion was how embarrassing it felt. We might know how desperate we are but let's not show the rest of the football world hey and at least retain some dignity.

Are we going to invade the pitch if we beat Boro next, or score a winner in stoppage time against the might of Crystal Palace? A degree of perspective is needed. Save the pitch invasions for something genuinely special. The Leicester fans managed to stay off the pitch even after Vardy had broken the record against no less a team than Man Utd.

I've never invaded the pitch in my whole match-going time, but I have gone mental on occasion when Everton have scored a goal and the opponents that we scored against didn't really enter my head. I just wanted to celebrate a winning goal, but obviously a club of our standing should be well above that. We should only go crazy when we are facing worthy opponents or a piece of silverware is on the line. To quote Ken Buckley, it seems that many believe that the "silence of the fans" is golden.

Ever thought that the people who moan about the lack of atmosphere and the people who are moaning about the way our fans celebrated are two different groups?

Didn't think so...

Each to their own; you pays your money, I totally accept that... but I presume we wouldn't want our fans to be invading the pitch every time we scored in stoppage time, would we?

I simply hope that those fans who think pitch invasions like yesterday's are just a normal reaction to a late goal can accept that there is another view out there, that invading the pitch after a late goal at Bournemouth in an averagely important EPL game is perhaps a little OTT.

If we are creating the perception that scoring a late goal after losing a 2-goal lead is our equivalent to say scoring 2 late goals in the Champions League final to win it, then it's a sad day in my opinion.

I was dancing round my laptop up here in the Highlands, so I'm not having a pop at those who travelled all that way and back. Well done all!

Then there's those after the match is over ones, such as Norwich away when we won the League and the Wimbledon and Coventry games.

Not forgetting Eddie Kavanagh at Wembley....

Inchy's last-minute winner at Highbury in 1984;
McCall's equalisers at Wembley in 1989.

I just hope those fans get a real reason to invade the pitch and the players keep their concentration like the professionals they say they are.

So why don't you as players, and include the manager, too take note that a whistle starts the second half and your job is to perform, earn your money and more important to us as fans play 45 minutes more than you did yesterday. Disgraceful performance, that second half, Rom... not that you were to blame solely... the fuckin whole lot of you were.

We know what the final whistle signifies, no points , one point, or as we all hope 3 points and you as players truly let the fans down Big Style.

I suggest you all as a team shut the gobs up, play for 90 minutes (or more) as the officials decide, then come looking at us with smiling faces and we can look back at you with the same.

Personally I thought it was kinda funny at the time when one bloke got knocked over by Barkley, then everyone else piled on. I was in a pub going mental with 4 other blues at the time and the fact it was against Bournemouth didn't enter our heads either.

An injury time winner in the context of the game, and of course you celebrate. Bournemouth deserved their equaliser anyway.

If the football world doesn't know how desperate we are by now, mate, we might as well all go home. I didn't go but I know the feeling, and does it really matter who your opponents are when you score a perceived last-minute winner away from home?

The points would have taken us within touching distance of the top 4, whoever we were playing, and I know for sure the players are going to need this fanatical support tomorrow night.

I've got a horrible feeling that Martinez is going to make too many changes. I hope I'm wrong because this is a must win game for Everton tomorrow night!

My last pitch invasion: end of the Leeds semi-final at Old Trafford; I was one of the nutters who took home a piece of the penalty spot. Mind you, if you believed everyone, there were over 5,000 pieces dug up...

They went from despair to jubilation at what seemingly was their beloved club snatching it at the end and couldn't contain their emotions, that's the kind of passion that makes our club great, and that's the passion we want from the players.

These fans show up week-in & week-out; the players just had to show up for 20 seconds of that second half to preserve that lead, and they couldn't even do that.

My gripe is that pro footballers are paid big money for 100% effort for full matches and we totally switched off at half time. Bournemouth totally deserved getting something from the game and perhaps it might rub off on some of our 'supposedly' top class youngsters.

It is more important to work hard without the ball than it is when we have it. Barcelona have instilled this work ethic into players far better than any we have. To be able to earn huge salaries for playing football is a privilege and playing at top standard for 90 minutes or even more is what these guys are paid for.

Bournemouth are not a better team than we are but they were hungrier and out fought us and that is not acceptable. It insults the fans who travelled to see the game and insults the club who pay their salary.

I can take defeat by bad luck or by a side who were better on the day but never by lack of commitment. We should take every game as important as playing Liverpool.

Young players like Deulofeu, Barkley must learn that defence all over the pitch is required when needed. Barry cannot cope with pace and once McCarthy went off we lost cutting edge in midfield. Lets hope that Jagielka and Baines are back soon.

We've got a big game tomorrow. A full-strength team has to be fielded. Anything else would be insane. Also looks like we need to score 3 goals to guarantee a win!!!

The Rats had somewhat fortuitously put us ahead. Although there were many of us on near the corner flag that joins the Main stand to the Kop we were still seriously outnumbered. The Gobshites were giving us dogs.

The Lineker was put through by Reidy, He clips the ball past Grobelar, it took an age to reach the goal, finally the ball nestled inside the kop net... YYAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSS, we poured over the wall like like fucking madmen and joyously danced at the foot of the kop with the players, dozens, maybe hundreds of us, who knows? I just remember scanning the kop both fist raised YYAAAAAASSSSSSS.

I defy any Evertonian who claims he would have remained in his seat. I can bring the moment back any time I want just by closing my eyes.

Best one was the semi-final at Highbury. I went on at the goal and the final whistle. Got separated from my mates afterwards.

Watched the Sunday highlights in my mate's parents' house; at the end of the game, they showed it kicking off with us and the Southampton fans and there was my mate on camera smacking a saint. His Mum and Dad were watching with us and turned to him in horror. He'd already run out of the house and I had to explain!

That was the day that made us as a team. We all knew we were ready to win things. What a great day that was!

If we're drawn at home in the FA Cup in January against Northampton Town and score a last-minute winner will we see another pitch invasion?

As I've said many times, I haven't a problem with pitch invasions; it's the context. The many examples given above were for much bigger games that meant a lot more than Saturday's result.

Maybe that's my problem, I remember the title winning days and now seeing fans invade a pitch because they thought we were about to beat Bournemouth, was a very public and for me painful reminder of how far we have fallen.

Caught up in the emotion, if the players are blaming the fans in any way, maybe they should just run back the halfway line, like they used to do in the sixties.

There are no "Highbury's" these days, we don't win at Anfield, we don't beat Mighty teams (which Leeds where) in semi finals... we hardly even get to a semi-final.

Unlike us, these lads don't know what it's like to be kings. But that brief moment on Saturday was just as much of a high for them.

You are right of course, it does show how far we have fallen. Let's hope we can give these fantastic supporters the success they deserve. Tonight would be a good time to start...