Cornish Steve

Whether his gesture was meant at the media, fans, or Father Christmas, Mirallas was stupid to make it. It was childish and impetuous, and he must have known it would be misinterpreted. If you want to criticize the media, do it in the interview after the game. He did himself no favors today. Yes, he scored, but the big picture is more important.

Bit of a let-off there.

This game should have been put away. So many chances missed. Baines has really stepped up this half.

Actually, I think Kone's had a solid game. Was involved in the goal and has created a few chances from clever play.

Changing my goalscorer to Mirallas.

You didn't specify Everton, even though this is in the General Everton Discussion, so I'm going to be honest. For years, I coached my children's football teams (only the youngest of the six had someone else as coach). The star player in our family is my oldest son, and he went on to captain his college team. When his team were playing in the U-14 league, we decided to spend the off-season playing in an indoor league. We'd never played indoor before, so we watched a couple of games and paid for one practice session, then off we went. Each game was two 15-minute halves. In our first match, we were well and truly slaughtered and lost about 15-0. The next game we also lost. As the games continued, we began to improve and won just enough games to play in the finals. Those finals were played all in one day. The top two teams in the league didn't have to play until the semis, but the rest of us just kept playing in a knockout tournament throughout the day. We won our first match, then we won our second match. To reach the semis, we then had to play the team we had lost to in our second game. At the end of the two halves, the score was 2-2, and it went into penalties. My son was our main striker, not really a goalie, but we practiced taking penalties in the back yard and I knew he was good at saving them. So, I made the controversial decision to put my own son in goal, over and above our usual goalie. As a parent who's a coach, that's breaking with protocol, but the other parents didn't mind at all. What I soon realized was that it's not so easy to score a penalty in an indoor setup. And if your penalty is saved, you still have a couple of seconds to try and score if the ball is loose. After four penalties, it was 1-1, and the final two players to take their penalties were the two team goalies. My son went first and scored. The roar that went up from the watching parents was "phenomenal" (to quote someone we all know!). It was as if we'd won already, but the other team still had to take theirs. The goalie stepped up. My son saved it, but the ball bounced back out, so he shot unsuccessfully again and again until the whistle went. Then a second roar went up, and I've never seen parents go so crazy in my life. All the boys on the team were mobbed, and the opposing coach was the perfect gentleman - congratulating all of us. We had less than an hour to play in the semis - against the team to which we'd lost 15-0. We took the lead, but by this team the boys were exhausted. We ended up losing 2-1, but we still felt like winners. The coach of the winning team, which eventually won the tournament, called all our boys over to tell them how much they'd improved. He had watched the penalty shoot-out, and he had yelled too when my son scored, such was the tension. So, that was the most enjoyable goal I've ever witnessed: the fifth penalty in a shoot-out, for a U-14 team playing indoors about 17 years ago!

Everton 1-0 Burnley Lukaku

Lest we forget: "He is only 21"

And how many times was Osman called up, yet he's been a staple of Everton for years. I don't put too much weight into how many times someone has played for England. That's more like asking who's a good ole boy and who's not.

Ugh!

Wouldn't Milner just be another Barry?

I'm hoping that Bournemouth win the Championship. In part, this is love of the underdog; however, they've played well and scored goals. It would be fun to see them in the Prem - maybe not unlike Blackpool when they were promoted a few years back. I do think Norwich have the experience needed to claim the second spot. As for who claims victory among the next four teams, I'm going out on a limb to say Ipswich. I can't think of a manager more suited to a sudden-death play-off than Mick McCarthy. If I were God, I'd arrange for a couple of hundred clubs to go into sudden administration and for St Blazey to qualify, by default, to play in the Premier League. It's about time a Cornish team played with the best.

Who's the Ian Botham of this generation?

England once again a complete shambles - this time against the Windies.

I'll repeat my prediction from a few weeks ago: Liverpool will fail to qualify for Europe and will not win the Cup.

This is why all contracts should be based, at least in part, on performance.

Ego is part of brilliance. I'm definitely not one to support selfish players or those not committed to a team, but ego is part of the makeup of most top competitors in sport.

And use TV cash to get Deulofeu, and that's an awesome set of options.

Tony Pulis is being found out, and I think West Brom will struggle to survive the drop. Their remaining games are tough: away to Palace, United, Newcastle, and Arsenal; home to Liverpool and Chelsea. Don't see many points there. Maybe their key game will be against Newcastle. And Sunderland and Hull are playing the worst of any teams in the league right now. There's hope for all three currently at the bottom.

Three people predicted the correct score against Swansea and therefore scored the most points for this game: chalkpie, rusty747, and yours truly. For the month, rusty747 now leads. For the season, Romey stays on top, despite scoring no points today. Deacs, though, retakes the lead for most points per prediction.

No, but you can buy yourself a beer.

Some interesting results so far today - and it will be even more interesting if Burnley can grab a point. Momentum is so important, and things are beginning to look very worrisome for Hull, Sunderland, and West Brom.

Aaron Lennon and Tom Carroll for Kevin Mirallas, anyone?

True. My comment was more a reaction to the suggestion that Lennon is useless.

Lennon. Seemed hungry to win and put in a real shift. Both Jagielka and Stones had a solid game.