Sooonderlaaand

Steve Round says: "The boys were fantastic. There was real energy, confidence and desire about that performance and it is great victory at home for our supporters. There is a magnificent team spirit and togetherness running right through the squad here. When young Dan Gosling came into the dressing room he got a standing ovation for scoring his first goal for the club. They work incredibly hard in training every day and they don't fear anyone. They go out and give it their best shot every time."

Tiny says: "There is a lot of pressure. If we don’t score or don’t win, then people are going to start calling on the striker and want someone else to play there. I’m not in a win-win situation – I have to work very hard to keep my place and put pressure on defences, because I feel that I need to work hard for the team. All players are playing in different positions because of the lack of numbers but we’re all in there for the cause. You see where we’re sat in the table and hopefully we can progress even higher.

It’s obviously a lot of mileage covered, but every player runs in every position. I just think that for the gaffer to have the faith in me to play up there on my own means I’m going to take that opportunity and do it for the team. It’s very difficult but I get help from Fellaini and the lads coming forward. Felli is a great lad and a great player. He covers a lot of ground and he seems to be attacking a lot and we’re playing off each other, but we’re trying to get the most out of ourselves for the team and it’s starting to work like that and the team is benefiting from it." (28/12/08)

See anything unusual or funny at the match today? e-mail info@bluekipper.com

* Phil Neville pissing himself laughing after his thrity yarder went narrowly wide. Every time he got the ball, the fans were shouting shoot, and Phil found it most hilarious.

IF ANY EVERTON FAN WANTS TO WRITE A REPORT OF ANY OF THIS SEASON'S GAMES, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO DO SO. JUST E-MAIL IT TO info@bluekipper.com AND WE WILL PUT IT HERE.

7 points in 3 games over the festive period so far and all looks good for the boys in blue. The New year brings some tough games. With a squad down to the bare bones, it was time for something completely different. Tiny and Screech up front was for me that something different and, for the travelling US Blue, having watched the Blues on FOX Soccer for 3 months being at GP was a sensation. If you read the Post or Echo this weekend [Barry Hoooooooooooooooooooooooorne's analysis of project Kirby] enjoy it while you can because we're destined to move and it will NEVER be the same.

Seeing Our Tater in the middle of the park was a stretch of the Man with the Red Hair's imagination. What an prospect in store for the 90 minutes ahead. From barely getting over the jetlag and settling in my seat borrowed from Mrs Shifty, it was Our Tater who set his market stall magnificently on 8 minutes and drilled a Ronalsoesque finish past the flailing Fullop for a 1-0 lead. Some poor defending by the Black Cats could be to blame for the freekick but nothing could be taken from the finish from TBLSWK.

GP was about to witness something as rare as an Everton store on the high street, 3 points for the Blues at home and a clean sheet to boot. The return of Tony Hibbert v Chelski was not welcomed by Shifty on Monday night, but today he looked rejuvenated; Hibbert was strong. I am not a fan of his but, he was well worth his place in the side. Supporting down the right, 'whipping' in a cross or 2, and coping well during the less than frequent forrays of Sunderland into our half.

Much of the first half hour was discussing the freedom afforded to that man in the middle. Brother Phil was in the holding role and everything was going through Our Tater. Midfield Maestro, Conductor of Play, Evertonian.

Schreechs' syrup slipped down over his eyes, a missed chance for #2. On 25 minutes the TBLSWK would get a second chance at the onion bag. The usual Peanuts jiggery pokery outside the box drew a foul from Malbranque, up stepped Our Tater to smash a rebound past Fullop. With Our Tater Involved again just before the half drew to a close, Tiny could only direct TBLSWK's freekick past the base of the post and a lucky Sunderland in only 2 down at the half. Ricky ' i have really small ears' Sbragia had to make a change.

The 2nd half may not have been as rampant on paper for the Blues. 1 Carlos Edwards chance, on for Malbranque during half time tea, at Tim Howard would be all the Sunderland fans got to shout about. It could have ended 4 or 5 - 0. Our Tater was outstanding. He continued to direct the scenes played out in front of the ever present Goodison audience. This show deserved an Oscar.

Moyes used his subs to bring in Big Vic for a cameo appearance, afforded Dan 'Goose' Gosling his home debut, and let the young Lukas 'Juice' Jutkeiwicz reap the applause on his debut for the 1st XI with a fantastic stroke of the ball with his first touch. Nervous? These young Guns certainly don't look it.

The stage was set for the closing scenes. A 2-0 lead was never getting lost and it would be Our Tater once again involved for the 3rd and final goal. A short ball for the marauding Lescott, up from his preferred centre half role. With a quick glance across the box to see the hungry Goose waiting to feed, Lescott placed a deft ball through the madding crowd for the young Goose to gobble. Slightly off side maybe but, when it's going your way who cares.

3-0 game over and off to the BK lounge for some festive cheer. Thanks to the BK team for my reward for travelling this far, a PC version of Footy Manager! Thanks, sincerley, thanks for my new BK badge; a priceless asset. I only hope that Goodison will be here next season and that I can enjoy at least 1 more game before she has her final curtain. I'll be in Toronto to watch the Derby on Jan 19th. I'm sure there'll be a few sickies afer that one.

Spirit of the Blues

Paul Lodge was Bluekipper's Guest on The Pallets at the Sunderland Match and we were delighted to have him. Lodgy graced the Royal Blue shirt in the early 1980's and recounted tales of Derbys won and lost, and coming up against Bryan Robson and Ray Wilkins on his Goodison debut. Paul is currently working with Sefton Council, but if he ever gives up his day job he is a natural with the microphone. Absolute quality stuff and had everyone in stitches.

We were also joined by our old mate Joe Parkinson and his 1995 FA Cup winning team mate Matt Jackson, who were a better double act than Morecambe and Wise. Father Blue Xmas also joined in the fun and photo's from Bluekipper's Xmas Party will be on the site in the week.

Players At The Blue Kipper Lounge

NYRON NOSWORTHY OF THE MACKEMS*
By
Mickey Blue Eyes.

* “The term is derived from Mack'em and Tack'em, dating from the early ship building industry (i.e. the people on Wearside 'mak[e] them' and other people 'tak[e] them') and started off as an insult to the people of Sunderland by the Geordies. In recent years, however, the people of Sunderland have taken the name to be part of their identity as Wearsiders.” – WIKIPEDIA SOURCE.

Screw Roy of the Rovers. If you worked on it for a week you couldn’t come up with those Sunderland names. Not only that, they also had a goalkeeper named Fulop and a new manager named Sbragia. Just think of the opportunity for merriment if they had Shittu and Invincible in the same team. Alan who sits behind me said he thought the first three names are worth more on the Scrabble board than on the pitch. After this game it is hard to disagree with him.

But I have always liked Sunderland AFC over other footy clubs. This has been so for years, long before we battered them 7-1 last season. Like virtually all such footy instincts I cannot fully explain why. Perhaps the nearest reason is that the late great Len Shackleton played for them long ago. And virtually everyone loved Len for his abilities, sense of humour and the way he looked. His playing appearance was extraordinary: When I first saw him he was a dead ringer for a middle-aged Dennis the Menace, complete with attitude, tousled black hair and striped Sunderland shirt (though not hoops), and slightly stooped, rounded shoulders. Add that to his tremendous close control and dribbling and you had a near-certainty of laughter. You could count on him to do his best to deliver football with a smile wherever he played. He was Gazza without the weight problem and alcoholic melancholy, Beardsley’s control and passing without the Quasimodo imitation. He could do things with an old laced-up, leaden leather casey today’s players can’t do with the new balloon-ball.

Two stories will suffice to illustrate. He once wrote a book titled “Clown Prince of Soccer.” In this, there was a chapter titled “The Average Director’s Knowledge of Football.” It consisted of a blank page. Len was no admirer of the patriciate at a time when it was more risky for a tied player to say so. He knew they took only themselves and their pleasures seriously. This was an era when directors were in it for the local kudos and were highly likely to be the local solicitor, butcher, baker or candlemaker seeking only a day out to lord amongst their customers. For the most part they were different from the current crop of bloodless shares dealers, attendant barrow boys and MBAs (incidentally, George W. Bush is an MBA. Make of that what you will). On another occasion the Mackems were playing at Fulham. It was 0-0, into the last couple of minutes and Sunderland got a throw in down the Fulham end. Len went to take it and as he picked the ball up he asked a Putney specky, “What’s left?” When the specky told him, “Two minutes,” he said, “Good. Just time for a goal,” took the throw in, collected the return, dribbled past three defenders and curled it over the ‘keeper and in from an acute angle. I don’t know what the actuarial odds were against him but I doubt it bothered him anyway. The fan probably believed Len could score whenever he wanted to. You have to conclude the only ones who didn’t like him were the occupants of Madame Tussaud’s or those peculiar hate-filled nutters and racists who have always dogged the game. Me, I warmed to him right away. Len knew how to laugh at himself and football, an ironist and a realist in the best sense of those words. You can’t put a price on that sort of instinctive intelligence and humour, nor can you manufacture it in a balance sheet or phony cheer-leader “atmosphere.” Thankfully, the smile of reason is beyond calculation.

Also, buried deep in our history somewhere in the 1930s there is reputed to be the most famous English club match of all time, a Cup replay at Goodison which we won 6-4. Over the years there were a few other Cup games that were wonderful spectacles. Some we won, some they won. Somehow all this got woven into my own footy culture. I’m glad it did. I used to love visiting the north east for a match, to exchange footy chat with the fans there and get the same feel for the game we have on Merseyside. Alas, times have changed. These days the police methods up there make it almost impossible to enjoy the spectacle. Mixing freely with opposition fans is scarcely worth the effort due to the likelihood of tribal skirmishes similar to the apes in Clarke’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Sadly, some north east fans have become as stiff-faced and tedious in their overt chauvinism and hollow hysteria as fans anywhere else. The sooner everyone realises how much has been lost and what ought to be regained, the better. Doubtless Len would take the piss out of it all mercilessly. Gawd knows the game needs it.

So I looked forward to the home game with Sunderland. Everything except, that is, the propensity of some of their fans to sing the glum analfield dirge from “Carousel.” Or is it “Oklahoma!” I can never remember. Presumably they do this on the basis that it will change the outcome. Well, that was disproved during a seven goal creaming in the same fixture last season. But they have done well since likeable Ricky Sbragia took over from joyless Roy Keane (a proper cold-blooded product of Mancs Inc. and the Premier League) and made enough of a fist of it to win an eighteen month contract on the eve of the match. I wish them well, except when they play Us of course. Not that this season’s home record prompted any optimism. One win since August made ludicrous the deluded nonsense that Goodison Park has “better atmosphere” or is “more intimidating” than other grounds. It is nothing of the sort. No ground is. Good or determined teams intimidate the opposition and produce crowd reactions accordingly, something that applies around the world. The only exceptions to this are the surges of enthusiasm you get in newly promoted teams, or in local derbies, but this fades when reality dawns. When that happens, the crowd can change with, literally, a vengeance. I have even witnessed barracking of Thierry Henry by Arsenal “supporters.” And of course honest Evertonians cannot forget hounding of some of our own players over the years. There are many other instances. When it comes to the claptrap of crowd support, football and its media propaganda could do with a good and beneficial dose of decency and common sense. But don’t hold your breath.

In this game we scarcely had time to catch our breath before our beloved Royal Blues set about the opposition. Nor did the Mackems. Which was gratifying, given our patched-up team repeat from a good win and performance at the Smoggies on Boxing Day. Accordingly we had a full house for only the second time this season. Sunderland had Djibril Cisse (who? – ed.) as striker with a green dyed Huron cut that prompted a specky to say it looked like someone had used his head for a handkerchief. Nevertheless, it was he who had the first shot after sixty seconds, and it floated directly into Tim’s hands. It was another hour before they had a second. It was that one-sided. Sunderland were awful while Our Boys were plainly up for it good style.

No surprise when we got one just under ten minutes into the game. Their Teemu Tainio (you taking the piss? – ed) fouled our Leon Osman right of the D, a couple of metres outside the penalty area. Mikky took one of his specials and whirred it slightly around the wall and at just the right height for it to come out of the sun. All of which defeated their ‘keeper while an awful lot of Sunderland chins immediately sank to their chests. They looked beaten even before the restart.

Apart from a couple of breakaways the game was played in their half. Thankfully we seem to have left behind the first third of the season during which we gave the ball away so regularly it made you scream. In this game the formation was tight and tidy and occasionally played some really good stuff. It was only a matter of time before the second arrived. And it came a quarter hour later. Another free kick, this time on the opposite side of the D and a little wider. Mikky took it again, it bounced back off the wall, and the Best Little Spaniard We Know leaned to his left, got over it and volleyed it straight back in at shin height, whence it ricocheted off a defender into the side opposite the ‘keeper’s dive. Sunderland looked like they wanted to be at home in front of the fire. This was especially true of Steed (last warning – ed) Malbranque, a formerly outstanding player now in his playing twilight years and all too ready to foul to make up for his inevitable loss of pace. He got substituted at half time, probably to take oxygen.

Feature of the second half was Mikky’s attempts to get a hat trick of scoring free kicks. Every time he takes one the crowd expect something special, pretty much the way they did with Kevin Sheedy. He had plenty of opportunity too. Sunderland were tiring by the minute and looked about to implode. But even at two ahead the fans are still mindful of our early season form and wouldn’t settle until we got a third. And it duly arrived with about ten minutes left. A quick move through the centre got switched to Joleon going left of the D, where he made a ground cross that went through the entire Mackem defence to Danny Gosling and he sidefooted it in from the right side edge of the goal area. Poor Sunderland, they were outplayed every bit as much as they were in the 7-1. And we duly got our long overdue second home win of the season. Hopefully this will finally restore the team’s confidence sufficiently to get us through this spell with a crowded out-patients.

In my view the midfield formation worked the only way it can with Leon and Steven Pienaar in the same side – that is, with them playing wide on each wing. This midfield formation works so far, and works well. Phil Neville is playing as an almost carbon copy of Lee Carsley at holding mid, while Mikky Arteta’s centre mid involvement and tackling made him the best player on the park. Marouane Fellaini and Tim Cahill interchange enough times to bewilder any opposing midfield and defence. At the back, Phil Jagielka, Joleon Lescott, Leighton Baines and Tony Hibbert are burying the nightmare leakage we suffered between August and October. The sum total is a much more solid and self-confident formation, but how long can this last without adequate cover? Young Gosling did really well in this game, and so did Luke Jutkiewicz when he came on as sub. But it is probably too much to expect them to deliver an intense run of games. This is why it was good to see Victor Anichebe come on late on, even though he naturally looked a bit rusty.

Next week, Macclesfield Town in the greatest knock-out competition of all, the FA Cup. Time to get up for it, time to bury the awful results of the last thirteen years. It’s time for a Roy of the Rovers saga. And nothing does that better than the FA Cup.

Steve Round says: "We’ve been quite pleased with the way we’ve been playing at home, it’s just we haven’t been getting the results. We all know that Goodison is a fortress. The fans at the Chelsea game were unbelievable. They get behind us and they spur us on and when you play two games in three days, with the second game at home, the crowd becomes really important because they are the ones that give you that extra bit of energy. The players can only really recover maybe 60 or 70 per cent of their energy levels but the crowd at Goodison can maybe give us that extra five or 10 per cent and that could be the difference that helps us beat Sunderland.

Over the last 12 games or so the recent form has been excellent. The togetherness in the team and the spirit has been excellent. The lads have taken everything on board and are performing to the maximum at the moment. Sunderland are going through a bit of a tough time at the moment. They bought a number of players at the start of the season and it’s going to take them a bit of time to settle in. But they’ll come to us with confidence. I think they’re a decent side and it will be difficult to beat them but we haven’t really got to worry too much about Sunderland or any other team, we just have to concentrate on playing the Everton way, playing with the same spirit and passion that we’ve shown recently and we’ll be fine." (27/12/08)

IF ANY EVERTON FAN WANTS TO WRITE A REPORT OF ANY OF THIS SEASON'S GAMES, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO DO SO. JUST E-MAIL IT TO info@bluekipper.com AND WE WILL PUT IT HERE.

Match Reports 2008/2009             

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