Sunday Morning
After the shambles last Saturday the results of our rivals yesterday soothed the pain a bit. I listened to the Boro game on the radio and they were playing like they were already relegated so I’m almost certain they’ll join West Brom in the Championship next season. I’d be more than happy with a point this afternoon as Everton are a class act and I don’t think they’ll be holding anything back for the Cup Final in nearly four weeks time. A win would be beyond my wildest dreams, but if the team are really shamed into putting in another performance like the one we managed against Man United, we could get a nail-biting draw. I haven’t heard any definite team news yet but there are rumours that Cisse has been dropped and I think Kenwyne trying to nod down centres for Healy to knock in is at least worth a try. It’s got to be better than our feeble attempts at the Hawthorns. A heavy defeat for Newcastle would of course be the perfect hors d’oeuvre to the main course. Match prediction? 1-1.

The Match
3-0 and Joey Barton sent off was pleasing, but rumours about Steve McLaren taking over at the SOL were considerably less so. I was glad to see Jagielka and Arteta were out for Everton while for us Steed and Leadbitter replaced Edwards and Reid (fine with me) and Tainio was replaced by Whitehead (not fine with me). Healy was only on the bench with Djib and Kenwyne holding on to their places upfront and I hoped Healy would come on pronto if we had a repeat of last week’s efforts.

I watched the game at my local pub The Pavilion and as usual there was very little interest in one of our games from the locals but someone did say after half an hour or so, “This should be sponsored by the NHS.” There were a number of stoppages for injuries starting in the first minute when Steed went off for six minutes and had five stitches put in his head. He took a while to settle when he returned but then he started to play well and we posed more of an attacking threat than we mustered last week though our attackers’ movement off the ball sometimes left a lot to be desired. Lescott coped well with much that we came up with and at the other end Cahill had several good efforts and Jo looked dangerous down the left, where he was finding too much space. Everton had the better of the first half and there was a strangely muted atmosphere coming from the TV but I was happy enough with 0-0 at the break.

I wasn’t very happy three minutes into the second-half when Everton took the lead. Pienaar received a good pass and was allowed to advance through the box before poking it past Fulop. This at least brought a fighting response and shortly afterwards Collins sent in a powerful header but it was straight at the keeper. Around the hour-mark the crowd began to vent their frustration and I went to get another Fosters. Healy then came on for Cisse and that seemed to go down well with everybody. It was all over ten minutes later when Pienaar put in a low cross from the right and Fellaini’s hair looked even more annoying than usual when he had time and space to slot it past Fulop. The screen showed a mass-exodus from the stands. We never looked like scoring after that and I hardly noticed Healy touch the ball. I couldn’t wait for it to end.

I still think that we’ll avoid the drop, but not because of any particular merit in our side. I think we may get a point from our remaining three games but the fact that several other sides are equally as bad as us plus a few difficult fixtures for our rivals should see us survive, just. See you at the Reebok on Saturday.

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