Everton United

With the way Saturday’s results went, you sensed Everton had an opportunity, and boy did they take it. What an effort. What a performance. What a day

What a weekend of football for Everton! Never in my many years of supporting Everton can I remember a weekend when all scores throughout the league have gone in Everton’s favour in every plausible way. With the way Saturday’s results went, you sensed Everton had an opportunity, and boy did they take it. What an effort. What a performance. What a day.

Gaz was due to pick me up at about 9am…and rocked up at about 8.20am. I wasn’t quite ready but wasn’t complaining and was out of the door by 8.30am and on the early road to Leicester. The journey was plain-sailing. Quiet road, good chat, and we parked up near the King Power stadium at around 11am.

It’s been about eight years since I last visited Leicester City and I can’t really recall a lot about pubs local to the stadium and what their policy is on accommodating away supporters. It mattered not as we pretty much crossed the road and right in front of us was a pub, The Counting House, with several Evertonians already mingling outside. We got a table inside, had some lunch and chewed the fat for a couple of hours. Over time the pub got pretty busy both inside and outside with the atmosphere bubbling away. Our fans were well up for this!

We made our way to the stadium pretty early and had a drink in the concourse. It was a little noisy, and got noisier and noisier as more and more Evertonians arrived, and when we went to our seats at about 2.45pm the atmosphere was really pumping.

The teams took to the field, and our fans got right behind the players and gave them a heroes welcome. Unchanged from the win against Chelsea, we attacked towards the opposite goal to where we were sat.

While we were ahead on six minutes, we could easily have been behind after two minutes when Patson Daka rounded Jordan Pickford but saw his goal-bound shot cleared just short of the goal line by Yerry Mina. Shortly after, Jordan Pickford made a good alert save also, though the offside flag had already gone up, I think against Kelechi Iheanacho.

It was time to have an attack of our own but nobody expected what would follow. Alex Iwobi did very well down the right flank and put the ball across to the edge of the penalty area where Vitalii Mykolenko had advanced. It was one of them balls where you had to have a crack, and our Ukrainian did. I even remember thinking as he shaped to shoot - well he’s not going to score, but you might as well have a crack. Blimey, nobody could have expected a finish like that. Our angle of it was perfect. It was beautifully placed and zipped into the corner. Everton ahead and it was that sort of celebration where you hugged everyone and anyone in sight. An incredible moment. Everton ahead. Everton fighting tough. Results going for Everton.

The joy was short-lived of course, as Everton did a bit of an Everton and contributed to their own downfall in gifting an equaliser to Leicester City. Mason Holgate did well to get a block-tackle in on Iheanacho, though this ultimately caused a bit of confusion between Yerry Mina and Seamus Coleman who collided in trying to clear the ball. This left Daka through on goal and he finished well past Jordan Pickford. It was very frustrating, all that good work undone by a poor mistake, doubly so when you remembered that Abdoulaye Doucoure had nearly scored at the other end just moments earlier.

And frustration merged into concern when play was stopped for Yerry Mina to leave the field injured. Michael Keane replaced, and did very well in his place.

Indeed Michael was a little bit involved with our winning goal from a Demarai Gray corner kick as he attracted a lot of attention in the penalty area from Leicester City defenders. I’d actually thought he’d won the initial header but it turned out to be Richarlison. It was hard to see what exactly happened, and I haven’t seen it since, but the ball went in. The players wheeled away celebrating, and the fans went nuts…again. None of us knew who had scored the goal until it was listed on the big screen. I thought Richarlison had scored it but it turned out to be Mason Holgate. A couple of unlikely goalscoring heroes this afternoon. A lot had been made of Leicester City’s appalling record of conceding from set-pieces this season, so it was refreshing to see Everton take head and take advantage.

The following 10 minutes or so as we approached half time were the most amazing I have witnessed over the years watching Everton home and away. Several renditions of Spirit of the Blues were belted out by the away contingent in what was a very special atmosphere. We arrived at half time unscathed and in great spirits. Half way there, could we see it out?

Yes, of course we did, but boy did the lads have to work for it. They were willed on every step of the way by our passionate fans. The atmosphere was something else, I can’t emphasise it enough. Life could have been made a lot easier with better finishing and/or decision making, one particular moment when Anthony Gordon tried to pull the ball back for Richarlison when maybe he should have shot springs to mind. We got into plenty of good positions but couldn’t capitalise.

It was just as well we were determined, dogged and disciplined defensively, as just like the Chelsea game, we were not going to be denied. All defenders stood up and were counted, particularly Alex Iwobi who stuck to his task and showed exceptional poise on the ball also. Fabian Delph and Abdoulaye Doucoure combined well in midfield, and Demarai Gray and Anthony Gordon both dug in and helped their full backs. Jonjoe Kenny also came off the bench for the stricken Vitalii Mykolenko, and also performed brilliantly and didn’t let anyone down.

But as with the Chelsea game again, special mention has to go to our outstanding goalkeeper, who is in the form of his life. He repelled Leicester City with a string of top drawer saves which more than helped preserve the precious points. The pick of the bunch, or at least certainly the most spectacular, was when he pounced to his left to tip Nampalys Mendy’s drive around the post at full stretch. It was a great effort from Mendy and an incredible save from Jordan.

He also then twice denied Ashley Barnes, once from close range, the other also a drive from distance, this a lot lower than Mendy’s, but Jordan got down very well to save. Ashley Barnes did come close again to levelling the scores in the latter stages of the game and this time he did beat Jordan, but also beat the far post with his header. Everton defended stoically and repelled all six of Leicester City’s corner kicks as pressure really cranked up. No mean feat given we scored from our solitary one.

It felt like Leicester City threw all they had at Everton, and were exasperated to see everything repelled. In the closing few minutes they lost their discipline entirely and picked up two stupid yellow cards and allowed Everton to run the clock down, much to the delight of our outstanding supporters.

Because we played our part too. How bullishly Evertonians have got behind our club in recent weeks has been exceptional. We have refused to go down with a whimper, and the backing the players got was the best I’ve ever witnessed from Evertonians. The scenes at full time were incredible. You never wanted it to end. You could see how much it meant to all the players and staff.

And if we can keep pushing forward and steer ourselves out of this mess, the future feels a lot brighter. We went probably as low as we can go this season under Rafael Benitez. Maybe it took that to make us realise how precious our club is to us. For the first time I can probably ever remember, all the supporters are united. We are all behind Frank Lampard and his team. We are all behind the players. We are all in this together.

Everton are united. Survive, and we could be on to something special.

Player ratings:

Jordan Pickford: I really wanted to give man of the match to Alex Iwobi, but when I think about it, Jordan was flawless, and I can’t justify giving it to anyone but he. He’s in the form of his life and has contributed towards us winning six vital points more so than anyone else in the team. Outstanding Jordan, well done. 10

Vitalii Mykolenko: What a brilliant goal he scored and nobody expected that. He also operated rigorously in defence and showed good use of the ball moving up the pitch. Let’s hope his injury is just cramp and he’s raring to go for Watford. 8

Mason Holgate: It’s great to see Mason chip in with a winning goal, and he also defended his box very well. 8

Yerry Mina: Well. He made one great goal-saving intervention, made a big mistake for Leicester City’s goal, and then limped off injured…hopefully its not a serious injury. 6

Seamus Coleman: While he was also at fault for Leicester City’s goal, his contribution throughout the game was very good and he lead the players well. 7

Alex Iwobi: Alex has been titled a lot of things during his Everton career, but I don’t recall “brave” being one of them. Brave he was though. There was one 50/50 ball he probably could have been gutsier with, but otherwise he put in an incredible shift at right wing back, stuck at his task well, and also used the ball very intelligently…including an assist. A fantastic shift from a player who has become an unlikely hero under Frank Lampard. 9

Fabian Delph: He was exceptional in the first half. In the second he tired a bit probably but got through the 90 minutes and helped contain the Foxes. 8

Abdoulaye Doucoure: Its great to get Abdoulaye back to his best.. His energy and work rate is currently a key cog in the team. 8

Demarai Gray: He was crafty on the ball and put in quite a shift before he was substituted. Nice to see him play a part in our winning goal also by putting a good corner kick into the box. 8

Anthony Gordon: A bit hit and miss, more miss than hit in and around the penalty area, but regardless he worked ever so hard, kept on going and made a good contribution to the win. 7

Richarlison: He gave everything as always, and made things difficult for Leicester City as the game rolled on. There was a funny moment after the game when a blue flair was thrown onto the pitch just next to him and was smoking away and he looked at it and laughed back at the crowd as if to say “I’m not touching that mate”. 8

Substitutes:

Michael Keane: Given he was thrown into the game unexpectedly, I thought he coped ever so well and marshalled our back line brilliantly. 8

Jonjoe Kenny: Jonjoe also excelled after coming into the game at left back in testing circumstances. He got involved straight away and performed admirably. 8

Salomon Rondon: He was good nuisance value, and certainly helped give Everton the opportunity to play the ball deep into the corner as we stretched the game out to get over the line. 6

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