Martinez basks in dramatic win on Tyneside

Everton though, have definitely got something, let's hope this last minute goal, helps us to push on.

If we don't finish teams off when we are on top and leave games as open as we do we will lose more than we win.

Good viewing for the neutral but shite for us

So hopefully, with our bit of luck tonight, are luck is about change and we go on a good run. But I think for all the shouting about Mirallas, what did he do tonight? But I hope Naismith is injured and not on his way out.

Cleverley to me is an ordinary player, nothing more, nothing less. Yes, we've got a break today. But it could have gone either way. Still that said its a win and a clean sheet and thats not something weve said lately.

But I for one won't be getting carried away — there've been too many false dawns under this manager for me.

I didn't think we were amazing today, but I'll take 1-0 playing mostly entertaining football - especially since we were denied a clear penalty in the first half. I thought Barkley was poor today and Mirallas showed why he's been a sub all season.

Great to get the 3 points against 3rd from bottom, in fact great to get 3 points, first time since when?

Not knocking our win which really should have been a foregone conclusion.

1 game off half way through the season, no way am I convinced as of today that we will be anywhere higher in the league come May...

Or maybe a new career as critic of some sort, you'd never be stuck for something to say.

There were 10 Premier League games today – only one away team managed a win.

He'll make bad errors sometimes and he'll get sent off as well, but he's made of steel. It's frightening just to look at him.

Okay, still shakey at the back I'm not Howard's biggest fan but he came off his line and looked comfortable; Barry (again not a big fan) was outstanding.

Players coming back a clean sheet – is this the turnaround or am I talking shit? A tough month ahead, let's finish the year with a win against a very difficult Stoke side.

However the same applies to games against Norwich, Bournemouth and palace. Let's get behind the team and kick in into January for league and cup games. COYB!!

We played some superb football in the first 20 mins and it was a shame we didn't score during that period

They definitely should've scored with their header but that's our good fortune. We really need to a) stop crosses and b) deal with them better

Cleverly is so much better than McCarthy – he tries to play forward's rather than sideways. Our better performances have coincided with McCarthy being out of the team: our attacks are quicker and more incisive

Mirallas did okay but nothing to stake a first team spot – what has happened to him?

Don #8... who is Buzz? (Distin?)

Did anyone notice it was Ossie that won the ball for our counter attack that led to our goal? Great pass out too.

Rom should have hit it earlier: needs to practice his right foot more.

Overall, very very pleased to have won. This season has shown us there's no easy games in the EPL so a win is to be savoured.

COYB!!!

We are only 4 better than last season and we are half way through. If we get over 60 points I'll take that as a success. (And so will Bobby and Bill.)

I could take the positives if this was a one-off display, but it's been like this game after game. A period of great football that soon descends into a walking-paced training session. We are frighteningly fragile at the back. Set pieces and crosses being the two most obvious areas. Week on week, the clear problems are never addressed.

Delighted we got the points... but one bungled header in the 94th minute and -

"He's an English talent that goes further than just being someone who can do everything."

I actually really like Cleverley... but what the fuck is the guy talking about??? His praise is so frequent and OTT, you just can't take anything the man says seriously.

Martines is as deluded as some of his fans. Come May I don't think we will have improved much, which will be a sackable offence considering the players at his disposal.

Happy to eat humble pie if we have a vast improvement for the 2nd half of the season.

See you on the dark side Roberto.

A win is a win, but Roberto needs to tone down the OTT adjectives and adverbs. It's toe curling at times.

Finally, I think Barkley came off to accommodate Ossie, and with another tough physical battle less than 48 hours away using the squad and keeping Barkley fresh makes a lot of sense. Stoke have had an extra 5 hours recovery time, and small margins are proving very important this season.

Yes we should have played better but we have lost after being the better team for most of the game before today, so maybe we deserve the win and who knows it may change our season around.. But before getting to exited remember who we were playing.

If Newcastle's goalie was just average it would have been 3-0. If the ref gave us the deserved pen it would have been 4-0.

Newcastle had two chances all game - just two.

Yeah it was a win against a bottom three team so no one is asking anyone to celebrate like it's New Years Eve but can't anyone here just enjoy a win instead of ripping and hating all the time.

There's so much talent in this squad it's unbelievable, I just feel they're being let down by poor coaching decisions. Who's teaching Lukaku how to shoot? Because if it's Dunc, let's be honest he was hardly prolific and I wouldn't have considered him good with the ball at his feet.

Lukaku should have scored at least 6 in the last 3 games there was that many chances but poor finishing has left him with 2. The fact corners aren't even being worked on is appalling and clearly indicates why we can't defend crosses and why we hardly score from our own set pieces.

You ask us to tone down our emotions, Michael, well what about the man at the helm?

My review is that is that we played well for a patch in the first half, poorly for most of the rest of the game, and came out of the game on top thanks to a rare bit of good fortune and a good finish from Cleverley.

Martinez's review was that we have 'learned lessons' over the last six fixtures and he's very satisfied with the performance.

He thinks 92 minutes of the same stuff we've seen all season counts as 'lesson learned' simply because we finally came out on top due to a last minute goal? He's the one who needs to tone it down.

We are still not putting games to bed when we have the opportunity. We still dilly dally around the box with no idea how to make possession count. We still look terrified every time a ball is tossed into the box.

I could take scrappy 1-0 wins all day long...but don't tell me what we saw yesterday was progress.

We are AFRAID to shoot when space opens up and frankly, I am fed up with it.

On to the game yesterday, and taking Michael's point in #29, I was grateful for the change in fortune. Too many times in the past, it would've been us conceding that last minute goal. Fortunately at St James' Park the fans are up in the Gods, so no chance of a pitch invasion!

Stoke on Monday won't be easy.

Gotta win against Stoke now. And get an intimidating atmosphere against Spurs for the battle for 4th spot. COYB

It seems to me that everyone on here thinks they're an expert, when in fact we just have an opinion - nothing more.

Every team in the PL has the ability to best each other this year. An away win and dominant performance and people are still moaning.

I was delighted with the performance and the win away from home.

My only concern is that the players gave their all and I don't know if they would have enough in their tanks to play Stoke on Monday. I suspect Martinez will rest Lukaku, Barry, and possibly Coleman (who ran himself ragged) and drop Mirallas. Wouldn't be surprised to see a team like this:

Howard;
Galloway, Stones, Funes Mori, Baines;
Lennon, Besic, Cleverley;
Deulofeu, Kone, Barkley.

Subs: Robles, Coleman, Osman, Barry, Naismith, Mirallas, Lukaku

or even go 3-4-3:

Stones, Funes Mori, Galloway;
Lennon, Besic, Cleverley, Baines;
Deulofeu, Kone, Barkley.

If you anticipate Galloway at right-back, Lennon in centre-mid and both Barry and Lukaku on the bench then I'd very respectfully suggest that you don't know what you're talking about.

Last night's game was like groundhog day. All the possession, but nearly got picked off by a really poor side. Any ball that went into the box regardless of quality we struggled with. I know Stones is going to be a great but right now he needs Jags back, as in my opinion he makes Stones look good. He does all the nasty stuff and organises us. Funes Mori has done OK, but he is not the answer for me. He's not physically strong enough.

Get Jags back fit and watch us tighten up. Oh I forgot about Howard; he's crap and causes our back 4 to cope with almost every ball in the box because he doesn't command at all. He's a bottom half of the table keeper at best.

This is now becoming a feature of Everton under Roberto, you just can't approach any game with any kind of confidence of a win, we're just as likely to lose as win any match we're involved in, is that a sign of progress? I don't think so.

The manager's gushing praise of Cleverley for his smart late header, sums up our manager. At times his praise is somewhat deluded, as is his belief in his managerial ability. Playing pretty football just isn't enough to win most matches I'm afraid.

We had 20 attempts, 9 on target. They had half the attempts and 1 on target. We were away from home against a team who were gaining in confidence after recent results.

This is an incredibly competitive league. Every team is capable of beating anyone. When you win away from home and keep a clean sheet... enjoy it.

Wonderful to get a clean sheet, even Tim looked more in command of his 6 yard box! Also, Roberto has learnt somewhat, as he has now brought Lukaku back to defend corners (our Achilles heel).

Cleverly and Barkley both had decent games, although the armchair managers on here would never see that!

Hopefully we can kick on now and beat Stoke, it won't be easy but at least we can go into the game with some confidence.

I agree that certain players could use a rest. Coleman in particular looked absolutely exhausted... and that was after about 60 minutes.

I don't think Galloway would make a great right-back to be honest... but my point was more that Martinez would sooner play a knackered Coleman, Barry and Lukaku than bring in a fresh face.

The relief when Cleverly scored from both the players and the manager showed this. Lets be honest we were lucky. We had some decent chances but so did they, and although we dominated significant periods, considering the performance of their goalkeeper and defenders of Newcastle, a draw would hardly have been an injustice.

Personally I don't buy that this was a great performance. If you looked at our forward play in the second half it was very static. In this respect, I felt Duelofeu was a breath of fresh air. Even if he made mistakes, it was in trying to actually hurt the opposition and he took the responsibility the others couldn't face.

As for lessons learnt, we'll see. I do think we weren't quite so lacksadaisical as we have been recently, and gave the opposition a bit more respect. Also we kept playing to the whistle, which was a nice change.

Still we've got a chance now against Stoke, to put in a decent performance and start to rebuild the confidence we've lost. Fingers crossed we do. COYB

The ref denied us a pen and we slowly allowed Newcastle to get into the game; our fitness diminished, the game got more open, and either team could have won it in the closing stages.

For me, Mirallas should have stayed on as, with Deulofeu on the other wing, we could have stretched them more. It was a lucky win in the end, as I thought that the game had been allowed to drift for too long before the subs were made. It seemed like our late rally was going to be too late.

Incidentally, what a bottler Lee Mason is, not giving Janmaat a second yellow, and reducing them to 10 men.

MotD didn't even show it!

You could see how pumped the players were after it was scored, I would liken it to that famous 'Season changing' tackle by Phil Neville a few years ago.

The fact it was scored so late made it that more gratifying, after a game with 20 shots on goal and the lions share of possession.

COYB!!

The fact remains that Newcastle had the best chance of the match and if it had been taken we would probably have lost, and certainly not have won.

Martinez again said in his MOTD interview that it was a 'complete performance'. The last time he used these words? Yep, after beating Villa. Subsequently, complacency set in and it took 5 mores games before we saw a league win. Doesn't the man learn from his mistakes?

It would have felt truly galling to have ended that game with another draw or worse defeat.

It was not perfect no, our defence still looks very very fragile aerially, but I'm not arsed today, it's a 1-0 win away from home, I'd happily settle for five or six more of those between now and the end of the season.

Think Cleverley is actually offering more to the team than McCarthy, who I love as a player but I imagine if that chance had fell to Macca he'd have tried taking that down and passing up the chance.
Cleverley seems more attack minded and goes well next to Barry.

Thought Lennon grew more stronger as the game went on after a slow start, which due to a lack of football is expected.
I'd give Lennon the Spurs game next Sunday too, as you'd imagine he will be eager to impress.

All in all it was a frustrating game but a win is a win and we need more wins, I couldn't have stood another draw to be honest.

Tomorrow will be a totally different type of challenge against a extremely well drilled Stoke team, space and area to manoeuvre will be much more limited tomorrow , plus they have very hardworking skillful player's like Arnautovic, Bojan, then there's Shaqiri.

A very difficult game on the horizon.

I thought Sunderland was our Oxford moment, or was it Aston Villa? What a silly comparison. I would rather we have no such moment by not actually being in such a sorry state in the first place.

We as a side are appreciated more in the media than a number of fans on here, we won didn't we, we were the best team, were we not.
Danny Murphy who is the best panellist by a mile for me, thought fit to give us plenty of praise for recent performances, and he's not on his own.

Come on guys, Martinez and the team cant seem to do right for you regardless of if we win or lose.

Our back 4 fail to pick up men arriving into the box and on several occasions Stones and Mori totally switched off altogether.

Glad of the win but we have to start concentrating for 90 at the Bach or we will keep conceding stupid goals.

On the other hand, the fact that we haven't been able to turn our early dominance in the games with goals to kill off the other team, and then allowing ourselves the nervy moments, are still glaring.

The fact is, I think that our players will have recognized that.
The bigger question and concern is if the staff and the players have the know-how to remedy this.

While not absolving the manager of their responsibility to coach, once the players step out on the field, it's up to them to execute and take charge of the game, and respond accordingly.

1. Why doesn't anyone on here ever give our manager a bit if slack for the fact that he is speaking in a language that is not his mother tongue. Yes he might over-use adjectives like 'incredible' but so would we if we had to address the media in Catalan or Spanish! Give him a break, he's trying his best.
2. The match was frustrating because we couldn't convert chances but the feeling at the end was fabulous. We've had shit luck recently and I hope this is a sign of a positive change that we deserve.
3. Cleverley's header was very very good and was as spectacular and brilliantly played as Jagielka's awesome last minute equalizer in the derby last year. Also promising to see a great on target header from Funes-Mori earlier in the game. Newcastle blocked what seemed like a million efforts from us.

I say well done players and manager on an awful pitch away from home... made my Boxing Day! COYB!

Made up with the last minute win, but lots have'nt learned the lessons after the Sunderland and Villa victories, both those teams were very,very poor as were Newcastle, Villa drew with them last week, let's wait and see if we can beat Stoke and Spurs before we go overboard with praise.

Newcastle aren't much, they've improved however. They defended deep and attempted to stifle & hit us on the break. They missed one great chance & we didn't really look capable of dealing with crosses or long straight balls inot the box. This is the norm. We also played some good stuff & should have probably put the game to bed earlier. Again, the norm recently.

I pay little attention to what the manager says as mostly its not for our ears but the players. I also think most of it is nonsense. We've conceded 15 at home and will probably need at least 3 to win against Stoke.

Tom: We were shite!
Dick: We were fantastic!
Harry: I thought we were great but our tippy tappy football is doing my head in.
Tom: You're right of course Dick
Dick: So are you Tom.
Harry: I thought Andy Gray was a fucking disgrace yesterday. Catterick out!!!

Nurse: Come on Mr W, time to take your pills.

But you know what?

If some oracle of the future had written on August 1 that we would get past Boxing Day with the fifth best goal differential in the league... better than Chelsea, better than ManU, better than the RS... every single one of us would have said HELL YES, WE'LL TAKE THAT! (Of course we'd have dismissed said oracle as an utter crackpot for showing us Leicester on top, but what the hell.)

The very last thing a young team and a young manager learn to do is win games late and lock them down. Make no mistake, this is a young team with a young manager that hasn't learned that knack yet... but they will learn.

I love what Roberto is building here.. still a work in progress, no doubt, and a major problem still to be addressed (every high ball into our box is a heart attack waiting to happen), but the progress is obvious and the excitement will follow.

1) Robles In, Howard Out.

2) Stop with the extra touches. Pull the damn trigger once the chance present itself. Lukaku would've had three if it wouldn't for his extra touches.

That's the point any manager can set his team up to attack at the expense of defensive stability, but most don't as they want to try and win matches and defensively weak teams never consistently win. We have fullbacks playing as wingers and as soon as we lose the ball we are wide open, this is just one example of the Martinez 'philosophy'.

The skill of a top manager is to combine attacking style with a strong defence. Martinez has never demonstrated an ability to do this in the EPL, just the opposite in fact.

You can only say a team has learned if they start to do things on a consistent basis, like you can surely only judge if Miralles is no better than a sub, if he has a spell in the team.

We won, people are happy, win on a consistent basis and people will be very happy I also thought we deserved to win, as we did against Palace, Norwich and Bournmouth, but I would never say lessons have been learned just yet though, until we prove it regularly.

Was it Alex Ferguson who said football, bloody hell?

I for one am prepared to be patient with the current squad and set up. Twelve to eighteen months ago this site was in agreement about the aging squad and how the transition would be difficult. Big if, I know, but if they are all or mostly here next season then their experiences this season will definitely result in lessons learned, and I believe a decent challenge for honours.
We'll all see one way or another.

We deserved the result for sure, and sometime we haven't had that in previous matches. We play some excellent football. That in good part is down to our manager.

But there is absolutely zero evidence whatsover of any lessons learned from before that would have influenced this scoreline. The goal that saved us from another disappointment was, in truth, rather fortuitous and pretty much all the elements that have set us back before- profligacy in front of goal, periods where we lose concentration, shaky dealing with breakaways- were all still there. I've no problem with managers exploiting their luck- as I say, we deserved to win because of our better football- but best not delude yourself that you have created it with some strange alchemy.

Actually there is one thing to learn going forward. We scored from a set piece. It's a neat and rehearsable way to score a goal, even if our manager seemingly regards them with contempt, maybe only worth half a goal. Maybe we could rehearse them more- offensive and defensive...

I think we are close to becoming a really good side, just like we were close under Moyes, but the thing that's missing for me this time (as opposed to under Moyes where is was attack) is defensive strength and I don't have confidence in Martinez to find the answer to our problems at the back.

So we're going through have to rely on these young players gaining that nous, while Martinez maintains or enhances the team.

Aus Shiraz @14.5% however I know all about and would prefer to forget about it!

Des, I'd recommend the Aussie Shiraz/Durif combo wines. Top taste, strength and hangover - free!

I'm sorry, sir, but that is a boatload of absolute malarkey.

The skill of a top manager is to WIN GAMES. Some of the greatest managers who ever lived did it with almost no attacking style at all (see Italy at any time in the '70s and 80s). Others have done it with overwhelming attack and style. Still others adjust their styles over the years based on their personnel. There are maybe five on Earth at any one time who consistently meet your standard by combining offensive style with defensive impeccability. I know of none in England right now. Zero. Do you?

If you're saying Roberto isn't at that level, congratulations on a monumental grasp of the obvious. If you're saying that he won't be, you're in equally safe territory, because 98% of managers never get there. But if you're saying that you don't see potential in what Roberto's building, I'm sorry, but your ears are flopping over your eyes.

I loved the way Moyes' teams won, with grit and ferocity and pure pride. But that team had a ceiling. I think this team's ceiling is higher. IF Roberto and his kids can learn to close games the way Moyes' teams did, this side has more depth and more talent to win more than Timmy Cahill and his warrior band ever did. But it's not just Roberto's job... it's the players' responsibility as well.

I don't care what our style is as long as we win about half the games we play, rather than a third.

It seems to me that those people who call Martinez shite and criticise his naivety are the same people who called Moyes's teams shite and criticised his negativity. I for one am more optimistic about Everton than I have felt for years.

Wow....

It is concerning however that despite total domination (80% possession) we could not convert that to goals.

What is more concerning is that once Newcastle learned they were not going to get a hiding they grew in confidence and spirit and could and should have actually scored with THAT header.

However on the balance of play and chances we deserved that win but for Roberto to come out with that load of bollocks does nobody any favours.

We have a really tough game tomorrow and will need to be up for it.

I am still not sure this man will prepare us correctly.

Not always necessarily as concerned about league positions though Andy, because other than his last season, I never really felt that we was either good enough or Moyes was good enough to take us into the top 4. It feels different now though, because although the team is young, it's definitely good enough. My only reservations are with the manager, even though he his responsible for a lot of the good coming out of our present squad. Mad innit?

The need for a big, strong, "understands what he has to do to justify being out there", rough customer or two at the back is required. We're soft.

Whatever Stones' career will be, he's no CB. Going to Chelsea would have him playing the same as with us; Jose or Hiddink. He's no CB.

I understand the "Shawcross" calls, but he's never coming. Unless you want to see Ryan Shawcross bringing the ball out of the back. But someone "like" him is a distinct missing link to this team going forward.

How different is a Roberto defense from Davy's, when we talk about defending crosses and corners; given Ossie's book and Moyes well-known fixation on defending. A difference, certainly. Yet, Moyes had big, strong athletes in Fellaini and Distin coupled with two "no quarter asked or given" bastards in Neville and Cahill.

Roberto doesn't have anything like that quartet. Barry has no problem giving it for sure. Allegedly, McCarthy does too. Allegedly.

We're building to something special? We live in hope. But Roberto's record, Swansea, Wigan, and us, doesn't seem he worry's about defending. Or signing in the job-specific, ugly fucker(s) required in defense.

Someone said he needs to watch the Southampton v Arsenal game... why? We twatted Southampton.

Oh and if you go back through Moyes's management, we were shit at corners then as well. He also loved to play with no attackers, like against West Ham when he put all our strikers on the bench and played Cahill up front. Ahhhh!

Let's hope we get the 3 pts against a very good Stoke team, they have progressed well under Hughes

We've seen the Martinez view on this. He won't play Mirallas and Deulofeu together because, while it will encourage us to create things, we'll give the ball away too much. Even against Newcastle he needed another defensive midfielder before he'd venture to put Mirallas in with Deulofeu. It's also why Ross is being converted into a 'recycler' instead of killer (he's playing it well, mind).

We passed the ball brilliantly against Newcastle but probably didn't create enough chances. When Del came on he gave the ball away constantly until he finally made something for Lukaku. He had a poor game yet created something with about 10 touches of the ball.

The balance is off right now but if we improve Del's decisions then we can be something else.

A good attacking performance which deserved more goals but Newcastle blocked shots in fine style and their keeper had a blinder. Lukaku never stopped battling, Barkley kept things moving, Mirallis always looked a threat and Lennon and Coleman created chances.

We still had a big hole on our left side. With Mirallis in the centre and Cleverley not being a natural defender, Janmaat and Sissoko ran Baines ragged and provided crosses which should have been converted. How we will rectify this serious situation I honestly don't know but with Shaquiri on the Stoke right wing we're in for a spot of bother.

As Trevor Francis rightly pointed out, our inability to deal with crosses and long upfield punts is our Achilles Heel. Why does Stones back off when a keepers punt is dropping into the box? Is he leaving it to someone else? This needs sorting.

All in all, absolutely delighted with the three points.and many thanks to captain Gareth Barry. He was tremendous.

Didn't know what to make of Besic who was a mile behind everyone and everything. I'm not criticizing the lad. He'll eventually get up to speed but right now he has some way to go.

A lot of effort was spent and I hope we can recover in time for Tuesday's game. The Belgiums have been known to disappear when asked to turn out twice within a week but, fingers crossed, they now have a different outlook.

Please Ross, chewing gum is not a smart thing to do whilst playing football, nor is spitting all over the turf.

There's just too many players in this side who are 70/80% there. Skilful midfielders who can't score or defend well enough, centre backs good on the ball without being anywhere near robust enough. Will these young players develop the nous we need?