Sat 26 Aug 06
Bogeyman banished
It seemed to me that Spurs would have been better off if Kevin Kilbane had not been sent off in the 33rd minute of today’s match at White Hart Lane. Lee seemed to have his number and probably would have penetrated from the right side all day long. As it was, I wasn’t overly pleased with the Kilbane start. However, as one of the tv announcer’s mentioned, something happens sometimes to ten-man squads and, whatever it was, it happened to Everton today. They made it to half time with a nil-nil draw, but, still, it didn’t look hopeful for Moyes’ men. Chances were that Tottenham would break them down as the game went on.
But Andrew Johnson started to find his groove in the second half and did some nice work to set up the first goal from an Arteta free kick into the box. A glancing header from the other Everton newcomer, Joleon Lescott, went into the net off of Spurs defender Davenport, but I believe it was Joseph Yobo who was waiting at the far post and probably would have had it. 1-Nil! Could it be?
Some great mid-field work from Leon Osman brought the ball forward on the right to Phil Neville and it was one Steve McLaren call-up to another with a tremendous cross from Neville and a beautiful finish by Andy Johnson. 2-Nil! Unbelieveable!
Tim Howard didn’t need to do much, but did what he had to do when he had to do it. I won’t comment on Martin Jol’s stategy, although the tv commentators certainly had lots of questions; it was a good performance in that respect from Moyes himself.
It took Everton until NOVEMBER 27th to score 5 goals last season and hadn’t hit the 7 points mark until November 6th when a victory brought them to 9 points. Lots of positive things happening in Toffeeland these days. Are Evertonians excited about a better-than-11th-place-finish for 2006-07? You’re frakking right we are! Twenty-one years to the day from their last win at White Hart Lane, Everton goes home with the win.
Mike C.
