Everton 2 - 1 Norwich City

4 February 1995

Scorers
Everton: Stuart 43, Rideout 66
Norwich: Milligan 81
Yellow cards
Everton: Hinchcliffe
Norwich: Polston, Milligan
Lineups
Everton: Southall 8, Barrett 7, Unsworth 7, Watson 7, Ablett 7, Hinchcliffe 8, Parkinson 7 (26. Samways 9), Horne 7, Ebbrell 7, Rideout 7, Stuart 7
Norwich: Marshall, Sutch (45. Adams), Bowen, Newsome, Polston, Ullathorne, Eadie, Milligan, Crook, Ward, Sheron (67. Goss)
Subs not used: Reeves, Angell (Everton), Tracey (Norwich)
Officiating
Referee:
Linesmen:
Attendance: 23,293

Overview

A battling 2-1 win for the Blues which they had only a marginal claim to have deserved all 3 points for.

Earle Barrett got a good reception, and played Right Back. Limpar too was dropped in favour of the 3 'dogs' in midfield and Stuart up front with returning Rideout.

The first 20 minutes things looked ominous. The Tweeties had most of the play, and the run of the ball. They seemed to have midfield sewn up, and were choking any blue attacks down with their highly effective packed defense.

Neville made a couple of fine saves, but it was only looking a matter of time before they scored when Joe Royle made a masterstoke, taking off Parkinson (who had not played badly) on 25 mins for Samways. Immedeately Everton seemed to have space & control in midfield, and started to be able to look for new ways of scoring (still no Duncan, and Hinchcliffe seemed to be playing more up the left channel than on the left wing, which was left to Leftback Ablett.

0-0 looked a more likely result now that the Yellow peril had gone off the boil and the Blues could not find a passage through the defence. On 42 minutes though, (from the VERY back of the Gwladys, i.e. the tea bar queue), Hinchcliffe's charge up the channel was uninterrupted, a spot pass forward, and Stuart was right there for a simple tap in. A very soft goal. I wonder who played Stuart onside. Ironically, the pass was very like the kind of passes Stuart used to make to put Cottee through to score!

The second half saw much the same patterns as before the break. 'Dixie' (JR calls him) Deehan made two spaced substitutions but nothing much happened for him. There was almost no sign of new star dangerman Ward, and speedy Eadie was wasted in the middle.

Of course being Norwich, there was the usual cynical array of elbows & shirt tugs from the Norwich defence, particularly Polston, but the worse came when Ullathorne took exception to being dispossessed by Samways and started swinging his handbag. Vin reacted in kind, and the ref stopped play and called them over. The Paddock shouted `Off Off`, but after givin Vin a yellow, Ullathorne got no card at all!

There were several rather inconsistent decisions by (new?) referee Astle, many bad challenges by both sides were ignored but more innocuous ones booked. Hinchcliffe was booked for a light tug but a Tweetie was allowed to wrestle a Blue down by the throat without even a foul, let alone a card.

We were still fuming about Vinny when he overjoyed us by picking the ball up and crossing from the left wing to unmarked Rideout, who headed down and firm for 2-0. WHO should have marked him? Yes, of couse, Left Back Ullathorne. The fates had spoken. There were 20, then 15 minutes left, and Norwich had run out of ideas. Then from a harmless looking attack, they scored almost as soft a goal as Stuarts. A replay may reveal a missed assignment, but Milligan, who still seems to score every time he plays away at goodison, put the ball in so easily yet Southall never moved despite being not 2 yards away and upright, ruining an otherwise spotless game for him.

This and the 7 minutes of injury time (all justified, but not greeted kindly as Norwich frantically hoofed long balls to try and equalise) meant frayed nerves at the end, but at last that whistle did go, and Everton now stand only three points from mid-table - but stay 18th! Personally, I'm cheering for Coventry in the Cup replay! :-}

Another view

Not much to add to a good report of what was a disappointing game.

As for Barrett, wasn't overly impressed by his performance. It wasn't poor or good,just average. Certainly not as good as Jackson's form recently and i thought his first touch was poor.

At least he showed some disapointent when Norwich scored unlike the rest of the defence.

Ablett was an improvement on Burrows at left-back i thought,tho he could hardly have been any worse..

Samways had a good game when he came on,with some good passes, the run and cross which created Rideout's goal was very good. Parkinson went off with a twisted knee,should be fit for next Monday's game tho.

The game looked like it had 0-0 all over it for the first 42 mins untill a good run and pass from Hinchliffe found Stuart who rolled the ball past Marshall.

The referee had a poor game again,basically letting the Norwich defenders do what they wanted.. Ullathorne should've been booked at least along with Samways.

The linesman was only about 5 yards away from the incident but didn't want to know.Samways dserved his booking for retaliation as did Hinchliffe for a silly tug on a Norwich players shirt.

Ebbrell's confidence in his shooting has got even lower,he got into two good shooting positions but tried to pass when shooting was a better option.

Rideout had another good hard-working game and deserved his goal.. He's now got 12 league goals from 19starts and 3 sub appearances.. One less than Colleymore,two less than Sutton and 10 more than Chris Armstrong. All of whom are valued about 10 times more than him..

Overall it was an average performance which yielded a vital 3 pts..

Marks 


Southall   7  .. a couple of good saves..
Barrett    6  nothing special
Watson     7  solid as usual
Unsworth   7  good game, one good run in the first half
Ablett     7  reasonable perfromance in his first game for a while
Horne      7  usual performace,tackled well.
Ebbrell    6  wasted a couple of good positios
Parkinson  7  only played 20 or so mins..
Hinchliffe 8  carries on improving, loverly pass for Stuart's goal
Rideout    8  hard working performance derserved a goal
Stuart     7  took his goal well, not really a striker tho..

Sub
Samways  8    added a bit more invention to the midfield,excelent cross for 
	      Rideouts' goal..

Player by player

Southall

Three good saves. Shame about the goal.

Barrett

It's very early days, but EB looks like a good Right Back to play when you need extra firepower for your attack in terms of fast breaks and dangerous crosses, but his skill as a defensive Rightback are rather suspect, and I will expect Burrows-like mistakes from him. On this performance, defensively, even Paul Holmes is better, and Matt Jackson a mile better. If JR is planning a horses-for-courses strategy, he's a great buy. If he's supposed to be the new Gary Stevens, we are in for a nasty shock. :-[

Unsworth

The rhino did better today than recently.

Watson

The invisible, the faultless..

Ablett

A good return, and worked well for the first time with Hinch as a wing partner.

Hinchcliffe

What ANOTHER goal set-up? This time on the ground!

Parkinson

Played well for the time he was on.

Samways

Took command and gave Everton the win.

Horne

Curiously unable to dominate midfield before Vin appeared.

Ebbrell

A few moments of class ruined by two refusals in scoring position!

Rideout

Come rain or shine, tall partners or tiny, Paul keeps scoring. Now on 12, top scorer. (Could overtake Rush :-)

Stuart

I hate having him at the front, but his goal was a fine Cottee imitation.

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