Vranny

I'll second that. Always annoys me trying to figure out bowling speeds when you guys host the ashes

Agreed. I wouldn't be surprised to see the club invite Howard back for one over the summer since he was only a few months off being here 10 years.

Might have to start visiting the chip shop after ordering a couple of curries next time. Haha.

For an Australian that's never heard of such cultural cuisine just how do they serve up this chips, curry and rice dish? Are each part of the dish served up seperately, with the curry being used for dipping your chips into, or is it served up together as a sloppy nachos-esc mess? Can't say I've ever of anything like it over here, but I'm very curious to try it.

But MC was slating McCarthy back when he was actually good

Whoops, must've blanked on that

If he's after a move to club football after the EUROs I can see him slotting in for Guardiola at Bayern. Feels like one of those "stars aligning" moments.

I still think they will win it, but I can see that happening. I just think at the moment their defence is good enough that 0-0 draws will be their worst result/s in the run in, have a few of those and few wins should be enough.

He missed one in the cup exit to West Ham last season too, so he'd missed 2 of his last 3. Throw in the whole Mirallas debacle and I'm not too surprised he stopped taking them.

Bet you anything it's Barca fans getting pissy at one of their former golden boys wanting to emulate Real Madrid's current star in Ronaldo. Anyone complaining wouldn't have read past the headline either I imagine.

We'll I'll knock on some wood then!

The bottom line is neither keeper should be a guaranteed starter for a team like Everton. If Howard's contract is up this summer, as I believe it is, we should be looking for a keeper of clear No. 1 quality to bring in. Ignoring that though I think there are certainly more positives to be found in starting Robles over Howard. For starters, Robles should still have his best keeping years ahead of him, where as Howard is obviously past it. Secondly, when given a run of games last season we all saw a level of consistency and assuredness develop in his game, while the only thing consistently seen in Howard's performances over the last 18 months is a tendency towards shambolic keeping. I'd much rather have Robles' consistent 6/10 level of keeping over Howard's 3-4/10 with the odd 7/10 performance poping up. Hopefully by next season though we'll have gotten the check book out and will have a 8/10 quality keeper to call our own

Someone remind me; is his contract up at the end of this season, or the one following? I'm crossing everything in hope that, at the very least, this will be his last season with us. Sorry Tim.

I was thinking of Cleverley before he scored, so I had to go with him once he got the winner. I was also glad to see Lennon get a start and thought he did pretty well too.

Geri for effectively winning us the game. Robles and Coleman the only other two players who put in good 90 min performances.

Solid enough performance defensively, but along with Mori and Barry he was very sloppy bringing the ball out from the back at times.

Definitely. Maybe that's part of the reason why I see him as being less selfish this time around Steve. He seemed to want to just force things when they weren't on more often when he was here on loan, such as trying to dribble to a wide position then shooting. He's certainly added more variation to his game during the year he's been away.

It's certainly not something that can be said about him this season. I do seem to recall him dribbling a touch too long and shooting from very wide angles (when he should've been looking to cut the ball back) in his first season, but haven't really noticed any annoying habits this time around.

I'm in complete agreement with you Joe. If we want a more attacking option to replace McCarthy it's Cleverley or Gibson for me. I only think Barkley should be pushed back if we're chasing a goal later on in a game.

Thought Kone, Deul and Rom were all excellent. Also liked Barry's and Mori's games and was glad to see McCarthy contribute well in our attacking third for the first time in ages.

I'm just hoping Martinez has the balls to drop McCarthy and give Tom a go in his prefered CM spot. McCarthy has been mostly average so far this season and just hasn't developed his attacking game as I thought he would after his initial season with us. It does feel like we need to start getting some goals and assists from our CMs under Roberto.

His suspension should include the cup game. In some ways it's good he's missing the derby. Seems to always be injured by some dirty fucker of theirs.

Tempted to give it to Galloway (can't believe he's only got 3 votes so far this season), but I can't go past Deul-boy today.

Naisy. Shout outs to Galloway, Barry and Stones. I'm also enjoying the form and confidence of Kone and Barkley.

Amazing. The best I've felt after an Everton game since that 3 - 0 over Arsenal in 13-14.