Poor game...but you take the win

With a few of the lads I usually go to the match with unable to make the game, I took the bus over to Liverpool with Chris and Mike, and settled into the Denbigh Castle for a few drinks while taking in the Crystal Palace vs Manchester City match, as well as keeping an eye on the East Anglia derby.

There’s always a nice selection of pale ales available at the Denbigh Castle, and when the barman asked what I wanted I looked at one called Forte – an East Coast IPA, which I figured would do the trick. It felt a bit full but I thought nothing of it, and it was only after my third one of them that Mike, when bringing it back from the bar for me enquired “you know that’s 7.2% Paul?”. That explained why I was feeling a bit ropey after three of them!

Ahead of the team news, pretty much everyone was saying we should go with the midfield that finished against Newcastle United, so a start for Andre Gomes basically. I can’t say I agreed as I feel he offers so much more from the substitutes bench, but fair play, he did well in there today.

We went for the 2.20pm train from Moorfields, though I had Ste’s ticket with me and he still hadn’t arrived. I ended up getting off at Kirkdale and having to wait for him at The Melrose Arms – just opposite Kirkdale station, until Ste arrived on the following train. We eventually arrived into the stadium a couple of minutes late for kick off, though needless to say we missed little.

In fact, we could have turned up in the 93^rd minute and still missed little, so poor was the match, I’m grateful for the win, of course I am. We’ve certainly played a lot better in games this season and come away with less, so its certainly about time we sneaked a win. It’s certainly about time we won a game of any description. Though its hard to deny the quality on display – from both teams – was very poor for a Premier League fixture.

The goal epitomised this. Arijanet Muric dallied on the ball for way too long, which seemed a strange decision as Burnley had done the hard bit really by getting to touching distance of the break all square. Though instead of just booting the ball long, he tried a pass inside, which Dominic anticipated, got a block on the ball and sent it back over the goalkeeper’s head and into the goal. Not pretty, but we were happy to take it.

The second half wasn’t really any better even if we did have a couple of opportunities as the game opened up a tad. In the absence of Amadou Onana and Idrissa Gueye; James Garner and Andre Gomes stepped up well. Andre kept possession well and kept us neat and tidy, whereas James battled and took care of the scrapping.

On another day Dominic may have added to his goal tally too, but after no goals in 23 games or whatever it was, he’ll take the two in two, however which way they come. It’s great to see him buzzing around and looking the part.

I don’t know at what point in the game it was that I winced at Ste and said “Dwight’s having a really poor game isn’t he?”. He really was. But fair play to him, what he lacked in output, he made up for with effort, and he ran himself ragged for the cause in the second half. Indeed it was he that really made life easier for us on 67 minutes when Dara O’Shea was given his marching orders when he felled Dwight as last man…albeit near the half way line.

We couldn’t put the game to bed of course. Beto seemingly more interested in trying to win a penalty than scoring a goal when he was put through near the end. I don’t really recall a lot being made of it at the time, but having seen it since – how Michael Oliver can be five yards away from James Garner when he was clearly fouled by Jay Rodriguez and not get the penalty – nor VAR not suggest its looked at, is ridiculous. When you see the penalty given in Manchester earlier today, you really have to wonder why that’s not been given to us in two of our last three games, though was given against us at Old Trafford a month or so ago.

Nevertheless, and though we didn’t make it easy, and had to shred our nerves as we defended a late free kick and late corner; it was nice to have that feeling of heading home with three points in the bag.

Ste and I swung by the Denbigh Castle for a couple of quick ones after the game, before getting our respective busses back through the Mersey tunnel.

A poor game. But we won. And frankly at this stage, I don’t care how the points come, just so long as they come.

Jordan Pickford: Really didn’t have much to do. 6

Vitalii Mykolenko: A solid if unspectacular outing for Vitalii. 6

James Tarkowski: Did well and showed a lot of nouse at the back. 7

Jarred Branthwaite: Was very good and didn’t let Burnley get behind us. 7

Seamus Coleman: Did fine. Nice to see him back. 6

James Garner: Seemed to sit in a bit more than he’s probably used to but did a good job and grew into the game well. 7

Andre Gomes: I was very impressed with Andre. We all know what capability he has got on the ball, but due to circumstance, largely injury of course, it’s sad we haven’t seen a lot of it during his Everton career. Here’s hoping he can finish his time at Everton with a bang, and make a good contribution in the remaining games. It was nice to see him play so well. My man of the match. 7

Dwight McNeil: He really was having an awful game, and while that didn’t really change, his effort and work rate really went up a few notches in the final half hour. It goes to show – if that Goodison Park crowd see effort, they’ll get behind you. 5

Ashley Young: Not great and was wasteful with the ball at times. 5

Abdoulaye Doucoure: With Ramadan I was surprised he completed the full 90 minutes and credit to him he was able to do that. I expect he’ll improve now in our remaining games and make an impact on the remainder of the season. 6

Dominic Calvert-Lewin: Looks much more like it, and it’s amazing to see the difference in confidence a goal makes. 7

Substitutes:

Jack Harrison (for Ashley Young): Did OK. 6

Beto (for Dominic Calvert-Lewin): I thought he should have done better with the opportunity when he was through on goal, but he seemed to want to try to win a penalty instead. Otherwise, not a lot to report really. 5

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