“… and tens of thousands of fans smile, rip up their ‘Everton to be relegated…’ betting slips and look forward to Thursday night in Kiev…”
Those were the words I was hoping to write for this report, and happily for me I can do.
A defeat, or even a draw in this game and the mood around Goodison would have been toxic ahead of a difficult-looking game against QPR. Especially with Burnley upsetting Man City on Saturday in a game that can only now be deemed by most Toffees as ‘funny’.
I don’t like to dwell too much on the events during games as most people reading this will have been to the game or have seen the highlights. Needless to say a goal from James McCarthy is well overdue but, in an attacking and refreshed line-up, was very welcome. I’m currently working with a fella who coached McCarthy when he was in Scotland (Hamilton Accies) and he reckons that the kid was a goal machine when he was 15. Hopefully he can regain some of that confidence in front of goal again.
It was nice to see Lennon contributing with an assist for the penalty – why has Baines stopped taking them?!? – and for the red card for Coloccini. If we can bag a couple more wins to make us safe in the next month and then unleash him on defences we might have a chance of racking some points up so we can start next season a wave of optimism.
Barkley’s last minute goal in his short cameo will also do him the world of good in a season where he has flattered to deceive at times. Especially as he’ll no doubt be involved in Kiev at some point. Has Leon Osman coming back really changed our side that much though? Should that not be a worry when our whole gameplan seems to revolve around a 31-year old?
So where does this leave us? Well against an extremely poor Newcastle side we would have done well to lose the match, so I’m not suddenly saying that we should stick with Martinez for definite. In an ideal world we’d have a replacement for him so as to kick on next season. That’s two wins in a row though. Avoiding a defeat in Kiev we could have something to really end the season on a high with, but, well, that wouldn’t really be Everton would it?
Typical Everton Prediction: Kiev 1 Everton 0; QPR 2 Everton 0; Boo-ing rating: Booooooooooooooo!!!!11!!!!