A decent response

Dave witnessed the win over Brighton, thanks to the West Country Blues.

Everton 1 - 0 Brighton

The alarm went off at 5:45 and, as I padded past the dog, she raised an Ancelotti-style eyebrow at the early hour, having adopted 9:15 as her wake-up time since I retired.

A 45-minute drive and I boarded the West Country Blues coach — not completely full but still 47 diehard fans, the majority of them season ticket holders willing to travel over 500 miles to support their team after the shame of Anfield. Players — take note!!

A very clear run saw us arrive at Stanley Park just before noon, so plenty of time to kill. No ToffeeWebber took me up on my request for company over a beer (miserable shower... joking!!) so I decided to have a tour of the pre-match offerings.

Walking along Stanley Park and glancing across to the scene of shame, it drives home how badly we need this new stadium. I love Goodison Park to bits but, if we are to compete, we simply have to move to a base which levels the playing field.

First stop was a nose around the club shop, then down the road to the People's Hub. This is very good — a modern, clean and very friendly facility; being so early, it was half-empty. I ordered a very nice sausages and chips (chips were to die for — no one makes chips like scousers) and a half-decent coffee. Staff kept asking if everything was okay; I would recommend this to anyone who is not after a beer (or can't find anyone to drink with!!).

Next was the Fanzone, where Dave Watson was interviewed; he looked fit enough to play. Then into the ground where I had a quick chat with the very nice bloke who is Graeme Sharp and found myself sitting directly in front of one David Moyes.

I have to say “Dour Davie” he most certainly is not. He absolutely oozed charisma and before the game he lit up the room with his personality and the staff were clearly as delighted to see him as he was them. Nice guy.

Onto the game itself and I thought we played really well until the last 20 minutes when Davies, Sigurdsson and Bernard tired. Bernard was excellent and, as others have said, Digne is much better with Bernard ahead of him.

Sidibé is an enigma: he looked great going forward, his sharp forward passing along the deck is excellent but, in the last 20 minutes, his positional sense was letting him down... hence Seamus coming on.

I decided to watch Tom Davies very closely in view of the stick he gets from some; I was impressed. He drove the team on, controlled the midfield, tackled, passed and intercepted well and kept his position. Okay, he hit a few stray passes towards the end but I suspect he was shattered. He is not so comfortable wide left anyway, and it was noticeable that they were getting too much space in the centre with him no longer there. This is a very good young player who will be better again once we assemble a midfield fit for purpose.

I will have a go at my player ratings here:

Pickford: one fantastic save, kicked well. 7
Sidibé: great in attack, not in defence. 6
Holgate: very strong game. 8
Keane: played well. 7
Digne: better but not up to last season's standard. 6
Walcott: decent, definite penalty, faded. 6
Davies: very good. 7
Sigurdsson: okay... but I'm not a fan. 6
Bernard: skilful, energetic, brave, inventive, great control; my MotM. 8
Richarlison: excellent — and a very good goal. 7
Calvert-Lewin: he got battered by Duffy and his mates but kept going and gave as good as he got. 7
Subs: 6 across the board as no-one had a lot to do.

I thought the booing of Delph was out of order; okay, he shouldn't have got involved on social media but we needed the points and booing our own is not going to help.

I had a great view of Carlo and the man must have been exhausted at the end of the game. Whether he is coaching much, I haven't a clue... but boy does he manage his team from his technical area! Constantly barking out orders for players to adjust position or change the tempo of the game — he is a polar opposite of the pursed lips and folded arms of the silent Silva.

Also, very noticeable was the involvement of Duncan Ferguson, who appeared several times in the technical area to discuss something with Carlo and this was something I can't recall seeing with any other manager.

I may be wrong here but I can't remember seeing Schneiderlin warm up during the game. All the other outfield subs had a few runs and stretches at some point but not him. If that is right, then I wonder if he was avoiding the possibility of abuse and, if so that is, to use Sigurdsson's word, 'disappointing'.

Finally... VAR. I was against it from the start as this is a spontaneous game and referees' mistakes are part and parcel. How they can decide that Walcott was not impeded when it was clear he was pulled into running sideways to try to keep his balance is absolutely stupid.

The disallowed goal was 50:50 but there was no way Calvert-Lewin was deliberately handling it. He was trying to chest it over the line with his body at the wrong angle and a yellow card was just senseless.

We had a happy coach for the drive home with five players receiving votes for Man of the Match. One for Pickford, honourable mentions for Mason and a Richi but Bernard a clear winner ahead of Tom.

Incidentally, Richarlison has cleaned up his act, hasn't he! He will still make out he is mortally wounded on occasion — only to rise again and run his guts out; but the falling to the ground for no reason seems to have gone.

He and Calvert-Lewin took a lot of stick from Duffy, who must have put on two stone or more of solid muscle since leaving us, and looks a very decent centre-half, but kept going back for more and Richarlison's goal really was a superb piece of skill.

My usual thanks to Ron, Mike, Ian and the rest of the people who run West Country Blues and enable people to see their team in pleasant and cost-effective surroundings. A much better performance.

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