FA Cup Heartbreak

There’s nothing like a bit of FA Cup heartbreak to get you writing again!

Well where do I even start?

What an explosive game. It had everything a proper cup tie needs, a red card, scuffles between your own players (LOL West Ham), a penalty shoot out, spectacular saves, a beauty of a free kick, a perfect tribute and so much more.

Despite the fact I’m gutted and it feels more like we lost the FA Cup final, not the third round, I feel more inspired that this injury stricken Everton team are starting to turn it around. The passion and fight they showed last night was tremendous.

It only seems right I start with Joel Robles and his amazing performance. When I learned that Tim Howard was injured, I wanted to cry, we had a shaky sub goalie in Robles with not a lot of match experience for us. But I hold my hands up, he has improved with every game he has played and last night his one handed saves kept us in the game.

He was calm and organised throughout the game and we didn’t see the usual flappy performance he sometimes displays. It was such a cruel, cruel way for him to end the night. A ‘hammer-blow’ as the BT pundits kept calling it, (don’t get me started on them!) for Robles to be our man of the match to then be the man to end our cup run. I must admit I didn’t have much hope that his spot kick was going to go in and then for him to have to stand in goal and face that Adrian, I just knew that was it. We wouldn’t have even made it past the 90 minutes without Robles so his head should be held very high.

As biased as this may sound, I really believe we were the better side and deserved to win that tie. I’d like to move on to the referee, thoughts?

McGeady’s sending off was fair and didn’t really do us much harm apart from it leaving the final spot kick to Robles, but how many of us think McGeady would have scored it anyway?! One of my contacts has suggested that the FA should review his sending off, in the hope he might get a three match ban, rather than just one. (He’s not a fan of McGeady’s.)

At least the sending off urged Martinez to bring Mirallas on, something he should have done anyway, though I appreciate he isn’t quite match fit. The ref for me scores about 5/10. He – as Bobby said post match – wasn’t consistent enough.

“My only complaint is you want a bit of consistency with the physicality West Ham were playing with, the yellow cards weren’t shared out in the same manner.”

How was Andy Carroll not booked for persistent fouling? Nolan was booked for them and that was it, they were nasty, time wasters, shirt pullers, elbowers, fouling, sneaky players and deserved to have been in the ref’s book more than we were. The final straw was when he had a word with Robles while holding a yellow card, did he not see this?!

Picture from Daily Mail.

Adrian was awful! Practically screaming at Naisy!

Moving on, Phil Jagielka was everything we needed him to be last night. A stalwart in defence, strong and defiant. He has also been shaky of late but showed no hint of a wobble last night. The same can’t be said for John Stones, but he is young and still has much to learn and is already so much better than he’s been.

Lukaku would have undoubtedly had a lot on his mind following the sudden and tragic death of Junior Malanda, but like a true professional he powered on. He got his goal and fittingly made an emotional tribute to Malanda which nearly had me in tears.

Lukaku was proving his worth, he was all over the pitch, hungry for the ball, playing some really fancy football and then that goal! Bravo!

I couldn’t believe it when we went up 2-1, I thought that was it, we’ve got this. The roar of the travelling 3,000 fans was heart-warming! The skill Mirallas showed in the run-up to that goal was breath-taking, world class skill! To run and weave in and out of about 4 West Ham players showed the truly amazing player he is.

But alas, the football God’s wanted a penalty shoot out and my word they got one. I was beside myself, literally could not cope, I was pacing around the room, sat on the floor, clutching a cushion to my face, jumping for joy, yelling at the television and then finally sat with my head in my hands.

I wonder if you can work out which parts of the match my sister and I are talking about here…

So it wasn’t to be this time and despite thinking we’d hit ‘the turning point’ already this season, I finally think last night may just be it…

I’ll leave you with my favourite part of the match.

Until next time Blues…

 

 

Is European football taking its toll?

I’m sure we’re all enjoying the European football we fill our Thursday night’s with but is it having a negative impact on our domestic games?

I took a quick look at the fixture history following a European game, it was interesting to see it in this context –

Thursday 18th September – Wolfsburg – won 4-1

Sunday 21st September – Crystal Palace – lost 2-3

Thursday 2nd October – Krasnodar – drew 1-1

Sunday 5th October – Man United – lost 2-1

Thursday 23rd October – Lille – drew 0-0

Sunday 26th October – Burnley – won 3-1

Thursday 6th November – Lille – won 3-0

Sunday 9th November – Sunderland – drew 1-1

So following these games in Europe our form is, L,L,W,D – which speaks for itself really. Not awful but out of a possible 12 points we’ve only picked up 4 from those games. But I don’t think it’s all down to the ‘Thursday night hangover’, we’ve had plenty of injuries and some tough, tough games following our European escapades.

So what do you guys think? Over at the Everton Page, we posed the question and had some great responses!

Ciaran Canavan Rogan –  Everton aren’t we. We shouldn’t be scared of any team but we can’t blame being in Europe on our injuries, it’s what the players want and the fans. It’s football injuries come on, let’s get on with it.

Chris Sheehy –  Think it’s been good probably our best chance at getting into the champions league we shouldn’t fear most teams in it but we should invest in a midfielder or centre half and striker and we will be fine.

Kornelius Mork – Honestly I’m a bit scared before every European games because of injuries, and how badly it could affect us in the league.. but on the other hand, we are Everton, and we should have our hands on that Trophies!

Daniel Peters – Professional players with the best strength and conditioning. European football shouldn’t be a problem for the lads.

Col Davies – Can’t blame Europe on league form as we don’t play the same team every game we are just slow this season plus other teams have sussed us out so can combat our playing style.

Oliver Chapman – I think it’s great that our great club is in Europe, where we deserve to be! We aren’t in the league cup and the FA cup hasn’t started yet so the players shouldn’t be that tired. Some of them need to man up!

I can see both sides, they are players in their prime and should be able to cope with the added strain of mid week football. Col is right we don’t play the same team each game and that is their job at the end of the day and it’s not like we’ve really heard them complaining! We all desperately want a trophy and this is just another competition we can be proud to be a part of and hopefully win some much needed silverware! It is putting Everton on the map in Europe and can hopefully attract some new, exciting players .

For me personally, I love the European games and to get our players experiencing a different kind of football can only be a good thing. I do worry before a Sunday game and from speaking to friends at the ground, they say it is a lot of games, it shouldn’t need to be quite so many games. I can see it does take its toll on the players but they are fit and it is what they’re paid to do, so only so much sympathy can be given! 😉

Following the international break, the players are hopefully raring to go and with a tough set of fixtures ahead, the rest would have done them good – well the players who got a rest! Let’s look forward to West Ham on Saturday and then Thursday the away trip to Wolfsburg.

Until next time Blues…

The Turning Point?

Hello Blues,

Writing about Everton in the past few weeks hasn’t been all that fun, a bit doom and gloom! But as you can see from the title Saturday was loads better?! And hopefully the turning point in our season –

Now go with me on this analogy, winning a football match is like baking a cake. You need the eggs, the flour, the sugar and the butter but you also need the icing and cherry on top, I know how cliche! Whereas up until Saturday I think we had the eggs, the flour and the sugar but were missing the other vital ingredients, yet with the return of Seamus Coleman and Ross the Boss Barkley we were complete again and even had the cherry on top, with a clean sheet and three goals.

Following four away games on the trot, there was a strong atmosphere around the ground on Saturday, everyone knew it was a must win game. There was a sense of nostalgia with it being ‘retro day’, all fans reminiscing about the good ole days of winning! Following the international break it was important we got the three points.

I was nervous ahead of the game, Villa always seem to do well against us and in recent seasons Agbonlahor just loves scoring against us, the body language of the players before we kicked off did nothing to calm these nerves either!

But we were all pleasantly surprised, Jags seemed back on top form (thank goodness!) even more so now he has scored 3 in the last 4 if you include the England games, still no Distin however Martinez insisted on the Radio City Everton show there was no rift and he just needs rest. Hmm.

Barkley was incredible, his spark is well and truly back and it ignited the whole team, he was getting shots in, made himself a nuisance to the defence and was just generally back to his best! Naismith had a great game, he just doesn’t stop, he was everywhere! I was pleased to see Lukaku on the score sheet, he too put in a good performance.

The defence seemed much more steady than in recent weeks. Alcaraz was impressive, very calm and collected with the little he had to do.

The whole play was much tighter and more compact, they didn’t seem to be as many ‘dodgy’ passes and no unforced errors. We kept the ball much better on Saturday than we have in awhile. With McCarthy and Coleman back, they are two players that hold the ball really well and more so than the benched McGeady and injured Mirallas.

We had a much less ‘gung ho’ approach to the game even when 3-0 up, Martinez was clear in his tactics to keep the ball, no need to get ourselves into a mess, we had 61% of the possession so it seemed to work!

It was overall a really good solid performance, seeing us score 3 fantastic goals that has lifted us 6 places in the League. Martinez seems to have learnt from the errors that have cost us in recent games.

I really hope this is the turning point in our season and from here the only way is up.

Until next time Blues…

Injury Woes

Hello Blues,

Before I start to ramble on with my next post, I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank you all for reading my blog over the last few months, your support really helps and I would like to thank Si at the Everton page for the wonderful platform he has given me to promote this blog. What started off as a Uni project has turned into something really exciting and it is all down to you, the readers. So thank you. Now soppiness aside, let’s get to it –

We’ve been hit with some injury blows of late, most recently the excellent John Stones has been ruled out for “at least 10 weeks” according to Roberto . This has come as another heavy blow to our growing list of injuries.

This was our injury list from a few days ago –

Injury List from The Official Everton Website

I’m a big fan of John Stones and he really seemed to be coming in to a good run of form and getting more and more confident in his game, so it’s a big shame to lose him at this time, we can only hope he comes back stronger than before!!

We’ve been missing the experience and dominance that so many of the players out injured bring. Seamus Coleman and James McCarthy in particular provide so much experience and dominance and we’ve really missed their presence. While there have been many rumours circling on social media about his whereabouts, Disitin is set to return for Saturday’s game against Villa. Mirallas is due to be out for another few weeks, with a “typical sprinter’s injury” however Oviedo is likely to return by Saturday, although Coleman and McCarthy are still no no’s and are likely to miss up to the next six games. I think they are vital and once they are back to fitness, things should look better. I hope the international break has served the players well too, some of them played for their countries but I’m hoping it means come Saturday they are ready and raring  to go!

With all the injuries, it has opened up a debate amongst us blues, should Martinez have prepared us for the likelihood of injuries and brought in some more players? So as always, we posed the question to the wonderful Everton Page on Facebook and here are some of your thoughts –

The views of Blues from the Everton Page

The views from The Everton Page

I agree with a lot of you, the injuries have really put a dent in our season and with so many other teams doing really well, I think we will struggle now to come back from our poor form, or maybe I’m being pessimistic!! I think it is harsh to blame Martinez, he wasn’t to know we would have this many injuries, but we really don’t have the quality we need in reserve. It wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact we have so many of our best players out, if it was the odd one or two we could manage but so many of the players injured, Barkley, Coleman, McCarthy, Mirallas, are all big names for us that provide for us game in game out. Once they are back, let’s hope there is no stopping us!

Until next time Blues…

Defensive Worries

Hello Blues,

Now we all know our defence hasn’t been great of late and we haven’t had the best of starts to the season.

The guys over at the Everton page  have asked me to delve into this and see where we’re going wrong!

My initial thoughts were that maybe captain Phil Jagielka is still suffering from a ‘world cup hangover’, or that Sylvain Distin isn’t exactly getting any younger. We also seem to be giving the ball away far too easily and not playing Osman and Pienaar has meant we’re not keeping the ball well at all, leading to the opposition taking the opportunity to get ahead.

With injuries our defensive line up is changing regularly, so compared to last season we had a pretty consistent back four that were used to playing with each other whereas this term we’ve had a changeable back four that are maybe not quite as used to playing with each other, leading to holes in the defence.

So let’s delve a little deeper.

Distin is 36 and will turn 37 in December, he’s getting on a bit now for a footballer I think it’s fair to say. I think we’ve all noticed his pace isn’t what it used to be, no criticism of him personally, it’s just one of those things! Jags is also 32 and he played in the world cup this summer, surely leading to fatigue! The centre back duo are the stalwarts of our defence, or at least were until this new season. We have now conceded 13 goals in the Premiership – let’s not count Tuesday night… meaning we’ve gone from being in the top three in the league in terms of the strongest defence to now having the worst.

Not all blame can be landed on the pair, Tim Howard has also not had the greatest of starts to the season, that said he was phenomenal in last Thursday’s Wolfsburg victory. However he then had the one of the worst games I’ve seen against Crystal Palace, he didn’t have much to do, but what he did, he got it all wrong.

I think the world cup has knocked Jags in particular and to then be the only player who was both a regular at the World Cup and available for the opening Euro qualifier game in Basel to suffer demotion to the bench is bound to knock his confidence, it’d be weird if it didn’t knock your confidence! I’ve always been a fan of Jags, but he’s become very inconsistent lately.

It feels like we are playing catch up at moment, we have a busy fixture schedule and we seem to be constantly trying to pick ourselves up and get ready for the next game but we’re still tired from the previous game and the whole game suffers.

One alarming statistic is that against Crystal Palace we had a massive 76% of the possession and yet we lost all three points. There is no excuse to have that kind of possession and not come away with a victory. We now have the second worst home record in the premier league, Goodison was once a fortress!

All this said, Distin was quoted telling Everton fans not to worry yet –

“I don`t see what huge changes you can make. We`ve been solid for five or six years. Over the past three or four season we`re the third best defence in the league. “It depends how you want to look at it; you can start panicking and thinking “What`s going on?” but I don`t think that`s the right thing to do.’ “We`ve conceded a lot of goals. It`s the Premier League and you get punished. “Maybe we`ve missed a bit of luck, a bit of communication. I don`t think it`s one thing, maybe a few little things together. “If you look at the chances they created it wasn`t that many. We just need to eradicate the mistakes and sort out that miscommunication.”

But what do you guys think is to blame?

Views from the ‘Everton Page’

Totally agree with Lee, Martinez is all about pushing forward whereas the defence often gets forgotten about. Interesting points all round, thanks guys!

I’m already nervous ahead of Saturday’s match, who knows what will happen!

 

Until next time Blues…

 

New Season Expectations

So last season was pretty decent right?

Martinez’s first season in charge was a roaring success with some historic victories and many young players coming to the forefront.

Roberto’s first win against Chelsea? THAT John Stones penalty at last season’s pre season? Ross Barkley losing his cool with Arteta, Baines’ stunning free kicks, the momentous win against Man Utd and doing the double, the 3-0 win over the Arse, need I go on?

But what’s in store for this new campaign? Well none of us has a crystal ball but I’m sure we’re all hoping for more of the same?!

Over at the Everton Page they asked the question, what were we hoping for this season? Finishing above the reds or getting some silverware?

Here are some of your thoughts –

Views from ‘The Everton Page’

 

Views from the ‘Everton Page’

Liam – I like your optimism!! If only! But hey, it’s anyone’s game!!?

For me, some silverware would be great, especially the FA Cup, you can’t beat it!! Building on our displays last season is key, so we can keep pushing for the top positions and the top players. I am pretty excited to see Besic in action, from what we have seen in pre season, he looks in fine form and as though he will be a killer threat up front.

I am also excited to see how other young players will develop under Martinez’s watchful eye, we are going to have a top class squad in the coming seasons if we can hang on to the youngsters!

Not long until we kick off the season away at Leicester and it has to be all 3 points!

Watch this space!

 

Until next time Blues…

EFC Fabric

So the home kit has been revealed, HUZZAHH!!

The 2014/15 Home Kit.
Picture from Everton’s Official Website

The start of the season will soon be upon us and the release of the new kit just builds the anticipation to get the campaign kicked off! I for one rather like the new kit. I like the darker navy colour and the new crest looks pretty great against it. But best of all, they have ladies sizes!! Yipeeee!! You can now actually buy – well pre-order an official Everton home shirt in ladies sizes, something that for the last few season has been impossible!! (You can see me Ladies Merchandise 3 part special here…)

My only quibble, and yes of course I have one, could they not have stretched up to an 18? The ladies sizes are from an 8 to a 16, which is great and will fit me, but with pretty much all high street stores selling clothes in sizes up to 18 and beyond, it would have been great if they could reach even more fans in offering shirts in an 18 as well. But hey ladies, we actually have shirts specifically made for us! You can pre order here.

I really love the campaign they are running also, the ‘#EFCFabric’.  I think it’s a wonderful concept and really brings everything back to the roots of what matters. The particular slogan I adore, ‘Once Everton has touched you, you’re part of the Fabric’… The kit is inspired by the kit we wore in 1924, the year Umbro was founded and the year we won the Barcelona cup in Spain. Let’s hope it brings us some similar silverware!

And who hasn’t seen the promo video starring the 11 Fabrics of Everton?! It’s fab!

 

Some of the quotes from John Stones and Roberto Martinez really show their passion for this great club.  John Stones hopes this kit can replicate some of the luck we have had while wearing Umbro in the past, I certainly hope so too! I think because the crest was chosen by the supporters, it means so much more to the players and fans who wear it!

I’ve seen mainly positive comments on social media about the new shirt but I want to know what you think? Let me know, comment below, or tweet me @TheToffeeLady94 !

The Toffee Lady – part of the fabric since 1994.

Until next time Blues…

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So long Gerry!

Hello Blues!

Sorry it has been so long since my last post, I have had all my deadlines for University work and other work commitments that I won’t bore you with!

Anywho, I’m back! And the topic for today involves a short lived love affair with a particular Spaniard!

Image courtesy of BBC Sport

He has tweeted his thanks to the fans and the Club in an open letter published on his Twitter account.

Deulofeu’s open letter

In July of last year we signed Deulofeu on a season long loan. He scored on his debut against Stevenage. One of his most memorable goals was an 85th minute strike earning us a point away at Arsenal. Remember it? And who can forget his special celebration!!

 

He may have only made 25 appearances for us, but I think he gave us an edge, he was young, quick and creative. Sometimes he was selfish with the ball but who can blame him for trying to impress and he is still learning after all!

I for one will miss him, I think under Martinez he could have been moulded into a fine young footballer – not that he isn’t already! Martinez was already building him a pivotal role in the starting team but some more experience abroad will do him no harm and I don’t doubt he will be back on the Premier League’s turf again soon!!

Here are some of your thoughts on Gerry!

Views from The Everton page on Facebook

Agreed Dan, he did just run and run, in the face of defenders he carried on, like you say – he was fearless!! Know what you mean Harry, he was a bit up and down but I guess it can be put down to his age, Barkley can be the same.

Views from The Everton page on Facebook

Matt, I couldn’t agree more! In a few years, he’ll burst onto the scene and will be wanted by so many top clubs! He did have a good sense of humour, I’d forgotten about that incident Josh! Agreed that his goal against Arsenal was a biggun for our Gerry!

Views from The Everton page on Facebook

Definitely Patrick, he does need to learn to pass more, I think we’re all agreed on that!! Thanks Eddie for your comment, he does sound like a hit with the younger generation! Charismatic and cheeky!!

I think we will miss him but I have no doubt that Martinez will bring in other players to fill that void. We are all agreed that he could be very selfish with the ball but I do think he just wanted to show off his skill and impress! His goal against Arsenal was superb and carried on our unbeaten run. I appreciate him writing the farewell letter, goes to show what an impact us Evertonians can have on a player!!

 

Until next time Blues…

Results! Win or lose on Saturday?

This question has caused a lot of controversy and debate among us blue noses, thank you to everyone who voted and had their say. Before I reveal the results, here are some of your thoughts:

David Bernard emailed in his thoughts: “I just can’t bear the noise that comes from those with red-tinted glasses. They think that they are special and that they have rights over everyone else – they’re not and they don’t. We were robbed of our next trophy in 1985 this is great opportunity for some payback – the fact that Gerrard blew it for them makes it all the more sweet.”

Here are some of your thoughts from various social media outlets:

Opinions from ‘The Everton Page’ on Facebook.

 

Opinion from my personal Facebook.

 

Opinions from ‘The Everton Page’ on Facebook.

 

Opinions from ‘The Everton Page’ on Facebook.

 

Opinions from ‘The Everton Page’ on Facebook.

 

Opinion from ‘@TheToffeeLady94’

 

As you can see, the views are pretty split, both sides have valid points! Everyone is entitled to their opinion, I am a strong believer of this, and I can understand both sides, however, here are my thoughts!

I despise Liverpool as much as the next Blue, but my love of Everton is much more than my hatred of the red shite and no matter what situation I will always want us to get 3 points and win. No matter what. End of. Finito.

Just because Champions league is pretty much not going to happen now doesn’t mean we don’t want to go out fighting! Tottenham are sniffing at our heels and if we don’t keep winning we could end up with 6th, which would still be amazing considering it is Martinez’s first season in charge, but our top priority is to finish as high as possible. Surely?

Yes it would be good if Liverpool didn’t win the title, I think we could all do without them parading around the city thinking they own it, but still, Everton is our first love!

I agree with what some of you have been saying in that perhaps it is an age thing and at twenty, I may not be old enough to completely understand the things older Evertonians have been through at the hands of the reds. I thought ‘Ken Smith’ posed a great question – what if it was the other way round? Do you really think Liverpool would be rooting for us to win the title or would they want to throw one of their games if it meant preventing us from winning the title? Yeah…..I’ll let you ponder over that one.

And now for what you have all been waiting for….*drum roll please*….the results are in:

 

So there you have it, only just over half of you want us to win on Saturday. 55.05% to be exact. 11% weren’t sure what to think, so sat on the fence and the remaining 33.9% of you want us to throw the game and lose.

I was surprised at how few of you want us to win on Saturday, just over half of the Blues that voted want us to win. But everyone has their reasons for this and it has caused some healthy debate among us! As I say, I whole heartedly want us to win, that is always my priority, no matter what. I also think it would be a shame to lose on our last home game of the season in Roberto Martinez’s first season in charge, but we’ll have to wait and see what Saturday brings.

 

Until next time Blues…

 

VOTE! Saturday’s game: win or lose?

Ok, so I’ve seen a lot comments floating around on social media sites about this Saturday’s game with Man City.

Some of you would prefer us to ‘throw the game’ or just lose, to prevent Liverpool from winning the Premiership title, whereas others think this is madness and we should always want Everton to win.

So I have another vote here! Cast your votes and we’ll see what opinion comes out on top! Tweet me your thoughts also, I’m @TheToffeeLady94 or comment and I’ll feature your thoughts in the results!!

 

 

Until next time Blues…