just for you mate:
SOS Derby Preview
Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known Garrison Keillor
They say a week is a long time in football, and never has that statement been better illustrated than during the past 7 days at Goodison Park.
Going into the Manchester United game on the back of a useful 2-1 win down at West Ham, and with the much needed return of captain Phil Neville touted as a good possibility, hopes were high that after a stuttering start to the season the Blues were on the verge of turning that famous footballing corner.
With Uniteds own form looking less than convincing and with several of their key players still missing through injury there was a hope, albeit a faint one, that we could really go to Old Trafford and ask them a few questions this time around. In reality it took just 34 minutes to end Evertons hopes after a glorious Darren Fletcher volley proved a dagger to the heart of a side who had clearly come set up to achieve a 0-0 draw at best.
Blue and Red Heroes
The misery was further compounded early in the week with the news that Pip The Skip wont in fact be passing any late fitness tests or making any much welcomed returns just yet as he is to go back under the knife. As with Jagielka, a cartilage tear we are told…surely we can see these problems coming? Apparently not.
Not to worry though, we thought…next up was Hull City on Wednesday night. A much welcomed 3 points surely a distinct possibility and a rapid ascent back up towards the right end of the table would follow!
Before that, however, came some better news….the best (depending on which side of the fence you sit!)
Literally minutes prior to kick-off at the KC Stadium news began to filter through, firstly from Sky Sports News, that the ultra-divisive Destination Kirkby scheme had finally been rejected by the secretary of state following the much publicised public inquiry.
Met with joy and relief from many Evertonians a real buzz going around the KC as fans received the news on their mobiles this was surely going to be the start of a great week to be a Blue with a victory over arch-rivals Liverpool this coming Sunday as the cherry on the icing on the cake!!
Johnson's Derby
You know what comes next though dont you, we should have known better…it just wouldnt be Everton to do things the easy way!
After a bright opening, Evertons players proceeded to lumber around the finest turf in the whole of East Riding of Yorkshire during the first half in such a carefree, hopeless and spineless manner that we found ourselves 3-0 down with just over half an hour on the clock. Had it not been for Tim Howard and a bit of good fortune it could have been worse.
Suddenly the joy of our near miss with Kirkby was overpowered by a feeling of sickness. Its that feeling of sickness you only get from watching a side that has relegation stamped all over it. No fight, no cohesion, no idea and no goal threat….that despite the once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence of starting with two forwards in the form of Saha and Yakubu. Hull City are everymans tip to be relegated this year but for 45 minutes the Everton boys made them look like 70s Brazil.
Whatever Moyes said at half time and his after match comments suggested it was fairly cutting and to the point it had the desired effect.
It still leaves a bitter taste
Re-taking the field with a renewed vim and vigour, the lads gave it what they had and came away with at least some pride restored as the final score read 3-2. A Kamil Zayatte oggie that will no doubt be in 2010 Christmas stockings on some gaffs compilation narrated by Rory McGrath, Danny Dyer, Alan Hansen or another equally irksome twat was accompanied by a Louis Saha penalty that almost, but not quite, got Everton back into the game.
It was a defeat that was hard to take and even the semi-comeback left more questions than answers; Namely, why the fuck cant this negative bastard Moyes get us going out and attacking shit sides like that from the whistle instead of fuck arsing around like a bunch of startled rabbits with the hope of a 1-0 win?? We have a squad full of talent, even with injuries…use it Moyesie lad. Preach positivity; tell them what we can do to the opposition, not what they can do to us. Make them believe it and it will be so, plant seeds of negativity and shit trees will grow, plant seeds of hope and maybe, just maybe, a wonderful orange grove will bloom. Or something (Ill pop a few of my tablets at this point).
Oh we hate....
Anyway, shit happens and that has gone now. The hope for a more positive future remains with me now that the grey cloud of Destination Kirkby has passed and what better way to restore the pride, to bring back the belief and to get us all pushing in the same direction again that a win over our loveable, if genetically inferior, brothers from across the park!
Sunday will see the Big Red Machine pull into Goodison, complete with Stevie Starfish, errrrr, Dirk Kuyt…..mmm, Yossi Benayoun…! Bloody hell, we could win this now I think about it!!
In all seriousness though the similarities between the two clubs right now cannot be ignored and the importance of winning this game to both sides could well give birth to one of the most fiercely contested Derbies in recent times.
Both clubs have failed to realise their stadium plans, both clubs have owners who many fans would much rather press on without and both clubs though at different levels are struggling for form.
Liverpool cant buy a run in the league just now and look distinctly uneasy against any side willing to have a go, and their exit from the UEFA Champions League to join us in the Mickey Mouse Cup (bet it matters now though hey!) is certainly akin to us getting battered by Benfica.
The walk through Stanley Park
Our own form is shocking, 5 defeats in the last 6 league games and the nature of the defending in some of those games have set alarm bells ringing. With confidence having taken a further battering midweek, presumably along with the players eardrums after the manager had finished with them, Evertonians will be rightly expecting a reaction.
In many ways, given the relative situations of our clubs, this is a match that could well define two managers under pressure; Benitez and Moyes, they have had their disagreements, they have both had the upper hand at times…now they are a pair of rats cornered. Neither man can swagger into this contest but, no doubt, one will swagger out. With Evertons upcoming fixtures suggesting we need the 3 here to avoid a serious relegation scrap and with Liverpools title hopes a distant memory this is a game neither man can afford not to win.
Fortune favours the brave they say, so which man will have the guts?
All known form and history would suggest Benitez triumphs. Surely the attritional Moyes will not change the habit of a lifetime for such an important game as this, we hold what we have is his usual philosophy and anything extra we can nick along the way then all good and well!
Ruddock still hasn't recovered
In the past you would sense Benitez has realised this and deliberately set his team up to exploit the time and space Everton tend to afford the opposition in midfield and around the edge of the area. We have seen enough of Gerrard from range to have learned that lesson well though and with Torres hopefully missing out again there is no need to be obsessed with sitting deep.
This Liverpool teams weakness is clear, their defence.
The keys to winning this game are to put that creaking gate under pressure and not hope it cracks….make sure it does!! If any team can come off the back of this Hull defeat and triumph against the odds then it is David Moyes Everton side.
I may have called him a negative twat earlier and I have dished out plenty of criticism over the years but last season the manager won me back in some part and I havent forgotten some of the promises I made. One of those was not to doubt the man quite so easily.
Super Lee's day
Its Glaswegian grit versus Spanish artistry and arrogance. Good versus evil you could say even!
They say the form-book goes out of the window for Derby games and I think never has that been more true than on Sunday, which thinking about it both sides should be pleased about seeing the form they bring! This is the most one-off of one-off games and an encounter in which both sides really can ill afford to throw caution to the wind. A draw suits neither side and the fans simply wouldnt accept it.
So close to the game it seems strange that the thoughts of many fans seem distracted from this monster encounter still yet Blues chewing the fat over the Kirkby decision and Liverpudlians discussing what to do with a house full of Tesco carrier bags and sports socks but come Sunday I expect the nation is in for a treat.
Passion, cards, goals and controversy…I am fully expecting one of the most memorable Derby games in a while. The stakes are high and the managers are under pressure, the fans need a win and so do both boards. Like the cornered rat I expect both these men to dart for that chink of light, to go for the main chance, and to put it all on the line in the name of those vital three points.
Which man makes it out alive, we will very soon learn.
My money is on ol blue eyes.
Neil Steele
