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Boro 0 v 1 Everton
By Martin Plant |
Barclays Premier
League. Riverside Stadium, December
26th 2008.
The last away game of what’s been a
very mixed year for us Evertonians.
Still, never a dull moment. The
Boxing Day fixture saw us travel to
the North East and Middlesbrough.
Not the shortest or easiest journey
from Merseyside, never mind the
South. David Moyes bought a much
depleted squad to Teeside, down to
the bare bones in fact with only ten
or so fit pros available for
selection. With the news that Leon
was unavailable after Terry’s
challenge during the Chelsea game,
there was a place in the starting XI
for Dan Gosling to make his
Premiership debut. Anichebe was also
fit enough to make the bench. For
those that haven’t been to the
Riverside, it’s not a bad stadium.
Sort of a hybrid between Derby’s
Pride Park and Stoke’s Britannia
Stadium. It’s about ten minutes walk
out of the town centre and right by
the docks, in fact there was a
tanker moored up which you could
actually see over the stand opposite
from where we were sat.
Phil Neville was
uncharacteristically wearing gloves
in the warm-up. A present from Gary
perhaps? Thankfully though they were
off by the time he led out the blues
for the game itself. The three and a
half thousand or so we took with us
belted out an impromptu rendition of
Z-Cars to greet the team as they ran
out of the tunnel. I was expecting
us to stick to our 4-6-0 formation (Moyesy
should patent that) but during the
game we seemed to play more like a
traditional 4-4-2 with Tiny Tim and
the Big Fella acting as a little and
large partnership up front. They
both like to play in the central
channel and combined well,
occasionally they were playing a
little bit too close together but
there’s certainly a good partnership
there.
An early back pass from Hibbert
which put Howard under a bit of
pressure from Mido, and Arteta’s
first pass finding a red shirt, were
not an indication of things to come.
After ten minutes when the game’s
tempo was just starting to slow down
after the initial exchanges, we made
a breakthrough. Pienaar put the ball
into the back of the net only for
Mike Riley to disallow it. It was at
the other end of the pitch so I
can’t comment too much on this
particular incident. What I can say
though, is that Mr. Riley had a
stinker. There’s little wonder he’s
held in such low regard by the blue
hordes on a day in which he made
several questionable decisions.
Leighton Baines was always looking
to get forward and the other side of
the pitch Tony Hibbert carried on
exactly where he left off from the
Chelsea match with another very
solid, composed performance. The
game was 15 minutes old before Boro
had a shot of any real note, a tame
effort straight at Howard from
Tuncay. Every effort Everton made to
get the ball into Boro’s box
resulted in Riley finding some wrong
doing on our part. After half an
hour Pienaar smashed the ball goal
bound, unfortunately it cannoned of
the post. Shortly after a much
undeserved yellow was shown to
Fellaini. Maybe Steve Round does
have a point about him being
unfairly targeted by referees? Yes,
he is big but for me I just don’t
see any venom there. One thing’s for
sure, is that we do need him to
adapt as we don’t want to keep
losing him to suspension. With about
ten minutes left till half time Tim
Howard was called into action and
dived superbly down low to his right
to keep Gary O’Neil’s effort out of
the back of the net. An excellent
save for a shot that otherwise was
going to put our hosts one to the
good. That was largely the story of
the first half. Everton looked the
better of the two sides and had the
better chances. What they didn’t get
was the rub of the green with the
refereeing decisions.
The breakthrough came early in the
second half with a corner from
Arteta that was eventually bundled
over the line by Tim Cahill after
Ross Turnbull parried his initial
shot. Bang went my £5 on Everton to
win 1-0 with Fellaini scoring (66-1
for those of a gambling
disposition), did I care? Did I heck
as like. Our support came to life at
this point, we weren’t as vocal as
we can be and was perhaps due to a
few too many sprouts the day before
and an increasingly dropping
temperature. It could very nearly
have been two when after very good
work by Fellaini, Gosling hit over
the bar from close range all-be-it a
very tight angle. This was one of
two very good chances for the lad on
a day in which he was very unlucky
not to get on the score sheet with
his first Everton goal. After 70
minutes there was a real heart in
mouth moment when Real Madrid linked
Adam Johnson was bundled down in the
box, much to our relief, Riley not
only didn’t point to the spot but
promptly booked the Boro youngster
for diving. We defended well
throughout the whole game, but
especially in the second half when
as expected we came under more
pressure with Boro chasing the game.
Jagielka was a rock at the back as
usual but I thought Lescott always
looked comfortable too. For me
they’re our best centre back pairing
and the beauty of brining Lescott
into the middle means we get
Leighton Baines onto the park. He
had a very good partnership with
Pienaar down the left. There were a
few boos when the fourth official
indicated there was going to be four
added minutes but it was no real
surprise with Boro using all three
subs and Turnbull having received
treatment on the pitch. Fortunately
Boro were unable to find the net and
in truth never really looked likely
to do so. A quick point on subs, it
was apparent for me as soon as
Cahill scored that Moyesy wasn’t
going to change anything. Everyone
looked in it for the team and there
was a real togetherness.
Whilst Boro’s support and
performance on the pitch were both
poor that should take nothing away
from an away following which was
excellent as always and a very solid
team performance. The last time we
had seven away wins before New Year
we won the league, and whilst that’s
no going to happen this year, how
sweet would it be to make it eight
against the Red Shite? As for man of
the match, it has to be Steven
Pienaar, we just look so much better
with him in the side. An honourable
mention also though to Dan Gosling
who on another day could so easily
have been on the score sheet. He’s
certainly one to watch next year. On
that point have a Happy New Year and
may 2009 see the return of European
football and the best away days of
all. |
