The lack of striking power has let us down many times this season but today the failure to convert a host of clear-cut chances was, to say the least, gut-wrenching. Madar looked lost without Duncan alongside.

However, despite my deep disappointment, I came away curiously heartened by many features of the game which can best be expressed in terms of player ratings.

• Myhre: Solid throughout, not at fault with either goal, at least one great save - 8.
• O'Kane: A lot of promise – better going forward than defending but showed more of what must have tempted HK to buy him in the first place. Rather lacking in confidence yet but obviously skillful. 6
• Bilic: Pretty good throughout but let himself down by rabbiting at Ellerary's nuttier decisions and then us all down by again giving away a penalty, getting (very harshly) sent off and thus losing us the game. He can be something of a liability. 5
• Watson: Had a great game – worked his socks off – some excellent positional play compensating for lack of speed and also managing an amazing spring occasionally. 7
• Tiler: Solid as usual – a couple of mistakes 6.
• Ball: Superb – my MOM (just nicking it from Barmby) – crisp tackling and intelligent when bringing the ball out of defence, holding the ball and thinking before passing. 9
• Farrelly: Not one of his better days – found the greasy ball difficult to control. 5
• Hutchison: I think he is terrific. Two games after coming from suspension and a lower division he already looks the business. He is as good as Speed (at least), gets stuck in, can control the ball and can think before releasing it. Missed the penalty (to a great save) but had the guts to step up to take it. 8
• Oster: One of his better games by some margin – looked confident and thoughtful as he jinked forward. 7
• Barmby: Splendid – worked really hard – showed excellent touch, good vision and real commitment 8
• Madar: Badly missed Duncan, looked rather slow and got worse as he got frustrated – chasing O'Kane around to bollock him for not releasing a through-ball earlier. Got booked for insulting Elleray and then was lucky not to go off for doing it again (not that it wasn't justified, but it was stupid) 5
• Cadamarteri: Only touched the ball once in 15 minutes on the field – not a threat. It would be unfair to give him a rating.

So, some great individual performances and about an hour of really good dominating attacking play which came to nought. We need Ally McCoist quick as well as Duncan back.

After killing time we went in to the ground earlier than usual. I can't believe that this is a Premiership ground – it's awful. I was in the upper tier on the back row and had to duck down (and look round the posts) to see the teams running out. If you didn't know, I don't think you would recognise it as being a football ground from outside.

The team lined up with the three centre-backs; O'Kane and Ball as the wing-backs; Oster, Farrelly, and Hutchinson in midfield, with Barmby and Madar up front. The match started with some early sparring as no one took control. Southampton had a couple of half chances, Myhre making a save from Ostenstad (I think!), but then surprisingly Everton took control and started to create a number of chances.  

Madar was played in one-on-one with Jones twice – missing both times! The second was worst when an attempted lob went horribly wrong; it was easier to score. O'Kane played a great cross in to which Hutchinson – un-marked on the 6-yard box – had a great chance. Although his powerful header was well saved, again I thought it was easier to score.

Oster had a shot cleared off the line, and the 3rd time that Madar was through one-on-one, this time he looked as if he was about to score before been taken down by Monkou: red card and penalty. But who was going to take it? Up stepped Hutchinson, he hit it well but a bit too high and Jones got an arm to it and deflected it over the bar.

I was still confident that we would get the breakthrough, but in all honesty we should have been 3-0 up. Into the 2nd half and So'ton kept on Le Tiss, Hirst, and Ostenstad, as we took control of the game further and created more chances. Farrelly (who gets closer every week) had a shot destined for the top corner brilliantly turned round by Paul Jones. Madar had a couple more chances, as well as Barmby.

I remember at this point in the match looking at my watch to see if we had enough time left to score as we were that much in control. Then a break by Southampton left Ostenstad through a la Madar... I feared the worst, but Bilic came in with what I thought at the time was a perfectly legitimate tackle. The ref. thought otherwise and did the same to Everton as he had to So'ton in the first half. Up stepped Le Tissier this time and he was never going to miss was he? 1-0.

The heads seemed to drop but the lads pressed for an equiliser. Danny was brought on for Farrelly but to no avail; we couldn't get the goal. With 5 minutes to go, Tiler made a mess of a clearance. Palmer made it to the byline, crossed, and Ostenstad headed home. I was broken, I hadn't seen Everton play as well away from home before and here they were 2-0 down. A consolation was scored when Tiler headed home Barmby's corner.

I noticed after this Barmby berating the linesman with some rather choice language which brings me on to the officials. The ref was Ellerray and Evertonians know all about him. He was just his usual bad self, and the linesmen were equally inept. I can't be bothered to go in to detail about this as examples of bad referring etc are spoiling every game in the Premiership and it is about time that someone did something about it.

We flew up the motorway and got home about 10:45. Was it worth it? Of course it was, we could have easily been celebrating a 5-2 victory today but, as people say, "That's the way things go"

Player ratings

• Myhre - couldn't do anything for the goals but performed all his other duties well. He wasn't that overworked though. 8
• O'Kane - Average, no mistakes but no sparkle in his performance. He was berated by Madar after failing to play a through ball. 6.
• Ball - Composed and assured, also got forward well in the 2nd half, a good sign for the future. 7.
• Tiler - Does the simple things well but sometimes he should try to expand a little. Mistake for 2nd goal. 6.
• Watson - No mistakes, no pressure, distributed well, glad he didn't go to Man City. 8.
• Bilic - Was playing well until the sending off, that will overshadow a good performance, but he did probably cost us the game. 6
• Oster - The best I have seen him play for a long while but he is so unlucky, he didn't get a break all game, his passing was good as was his vision. 7.
• Hutchinson - Obviously upset about his misses but I think he will prove to be a good signing. 7.
• Farrelly - I think that he gets better with each game, and is beginning to learn (probably the hard way), he IS going to score from 30 yards one of these days, Law of averages!!. 7.5.
• Barmby - MOTM, played his heart out and linked extremely well, he was captain as well. 9.
• Madar - Well I am yet to be convinced, he should have had a hat-trick and seemed to be getting very agitated with things, (see O'Kane) at the end he was arguing with the ref.I think he has cost us 5 points recently with his poor finishing. 7.
• Cadamarteri - Ran around well ! and linked well. 7.

Next up Spurs away in my quest to see Everton win away!

This Premier League match was drifting into deadlock when Mickael Madar received the ball when he appeared to be clearly offside. He ran on towards Paul Jones in the Southampton goal and just as Jones appeared about to win this duel, Monkou pulled Madar down from behind. There was no doubting the penalty or, equally, that Monkou had to go off.

Don Hutchison blasted the penalty high towards Jones's right but the Southampton goalkeeper launched himself and tipped the ball over the bar.

Everton might have been 2-0 up by then. In the 18th minute John O'Kane put a cross on to Hutchison's head and he, barely six yards from goal, smacked in a sharp header. Jones tipped that over, too.

Just four minutes before the penalty incident, Nick Barmby volleyed a quick pass to Madar who tried to lob Jones. But Jones was having none of it. He anticipated the shot, stretched and grabbed the ball as it began to arc over him.

But these incidents were the exception. Southampton had little momentum or penetration throughout the first half and Le Tissier, of all people, put the ball straight at Thomas Myrhe after carving out an opening. A header by Egil Ostenstad found Le Tissier in a promising position, but the referee blew for an offence by an Everton player as the ball reached him. And that, effectively, was the end of that.

Southampton went in front after 69 minutes when Bilic blatantly pulled down Ostenstad as he ran through on to a Le Tissier pass. Bilic protested vigorously, but he got the red card and Le Tissier put the resultant penalty softly to Myrhe's right.

As 10 against 10, the contest finally took off, though there were some good openings before that. Three minutes after half-time, Gareth Farrelly went down Southampton's left, turned, cut in and put over a perfect cross. Shortly before that, Jones had to stretch yet again to keep out a Farrelly shot.

The winner was simplicity itself. Carlton Palmer finally found some space on Everton's left, looked up and crossed towards Ostenstad at the far post. His downward header flew past Myrhe. Carl Tiler snatched a goal back for Everton in the final minute, but playing badly and still winning shows how far Southampton have come.

The difference was that after Slaven Bilic was sent off – for the third time this season – in the 69th minute, for fouling Ostenstad, Matthew Le Tissier put Southampton's penalty away. "All credit to them," David Jones, the Southampton manager, said of his team. "I asked them if they'd have a go, and they said 'yes'."

Jones was aggrieved, though, about the prelude to the first penalty, when Madar chased Farrelly's long ball through a defence which looked uncertain throughout over offsides. Jones, a former Everton player, said: "If the linesman had been on his toes it was five yards offside."

Oddly, Everton faded after missing their penalty, having dominated beforehand. Howard Kendall, their manager, used Nicky Barmby up front and made him captain in the absence of Duncan Ferguson. Quick and clever though he is, Barmby is essentially an attacking midfield player, and it was surprising that Kendall did not bring on that natural striker, Danny Cadamarteri, until 15 minutes from time.

Kendall said: "I think you look at a football match and it turns on opportunities and chances. We probably had enough chances to win four games." The first, and one of the best, came after 19 minutes. Receiving a pass from Madar on the right, O'Kane sent a long cross to the far post where Hutchison saw his strong header acrobatically turned over by Jones.

Well might David Jones, whom his goalkeeper followed to The Dell from Stockport County, claim: "He is becoming one of the best goalkeepers in the Premiership." Kendall agreed: "Their goalkeeper was excellent."

When Barmby's well-judged lob put Madar clear, Jones saved the consequent chip, too. Early in the second half, he turned Farrelly's high shot round a post, and late in the game he came dashing out to claw the ball away from the advancing Cadamarteri before springing to his feet to save the ensuing shot by Madar. Only in injury time was he beaten by a header by Carl Tiler from a corner, itself conceded when Jones saved Tiler's first header from a free kick by Hutchison.

After 87 minutes, Southampton rubbed salt into Everton's wounds. Palmer nodded down a careless clearance and then crossed from the right for Ostenstad, alone on the far post, to head in. "If you play badly and you lose," a disenchanted Kendall said, "you hold your hand up. It's very frustrating if you play like you play today and you only score one goal, and that in injury time."

Everton ought to have been three goals to the good before Don Hutchison was invited to beat Paul Jones from the spot after 37 minutes. If Everton's players knew then what they were to discover later about Jones's prowess as a goalkeeper, they might have been less inclined to congratulate one another before the kick had even been taken.

Hutchison struck it well enough but Jones somehow managed to push the ball up over the crossbar. Everton knew then that they would have their work cut out to beat the former farm labourer, if Hutchison did not already know it.

His header at point-blank range after 18 minutes would have beaten most goalkeepers, as would have Gareth Farrelly's teasing curler just after half-time, but Jones was equal to them both. "He's turning into one of the top Premiership keepers," said Dave Jones, the Southampton manager.

Howard Kendall, the Everton manager, was more concerned with finishing than saving. John Oster might have scored after six minutes while the Frenchman Mickael Madar failed to lob Jones when clean through.

The absence of Everton's leading scorer, Duncan Ferguson, through suspension is proving costly. Just to compound Kendall's misery, the profligate Madar appears equally prone to ill discipline. Worse, however, on that score was to follow.

Saints started off in a subdued mood but the sending-off of Ken Monkou after bringing down Madar for the penalty sharpened their focus and resolve. In the 68th minute, Matt Le Tissier timed a through ball to perfection and in a rerun of the earlier penalty incident, Slaven Bilic brought down Egil Ostenstad and the Croat was dismissed for the third time this season. Le Tissier's resulting penalty, unlike that of Hutchison's, was struck with minimal power but accuracy and disguise, and was his 45th success out of 46 attempts.

What appeared to be a superfluous 86th-minute headed goal by Ostenstad turned out to be the winner when Carl Tiler hit back with a header of his own from a corner in the last minute.

Club                          P    W    D    L   GF   GA   GD   Pts
Manchester United            30   18    6    6   58   22   36   60
Arsenal                      27   14    9    4   46   26   20   51
Liverpool                    29   14    8    7   48   29   19   50
Chelsea                      29   15    3   11   58   33   25   48
Blackburn Rovers             28   13    9    6   49   37   12   48
Derby County                 28   13    6    9   44   34   10   45
Leeds United                 29   13    6   10   40   30   10   45
West Ham United              28   12    5   11   39   37    2   41
Leicester City               28   10   10    8   34   28    6   40
Southampton                  29   12    4   13   36   38   -2   40
Coventry City                28   10    9    9   35   35    0   39
Sheffield Wednesday          29   10    7   12   43   54  -11   37
Aston Villa                  30   10    6   14   31   40   -9   36
Newcastle United             27    9    7   11   26   31   -5   34
Wimbledon                    27    8    8   11   28   31   -3   32
Everton                      29    7    9   13   33   42   -9   30
Tottenham Hotspur            29    8    6   15   26   44  -18   30
Barnsley                     28    8    4   16   25   63  -38   28
Bolton Wanderers             28    4   12   12   24   45  -21   24
Crystal Palace               28    5    8   15   23   47  -24   23