Match Day Thread Everton v Southampton 9th July, 6pm, Amazon

Happy with a draw. Not so long ago l would have been ecstatic with a point at the Toffees. Sounds like we could have had all three, but will take a postive performance and continuing the upward curve.

Pleased Ings added to his tally.

 

I think he just realised how fragile we are to direct football - and they closed us down better.

 

Agreed with both.

 

That 2nd half was dismal. Everyone including ref had a bad 2nd half.

Game felt like a home game. Dominating procession but lacking the quality to break down a team sitting back and playing on the counter.

All in all 2 points dropped. Missed penalty. Missed chances. Should have scored 3 goals.

 

Sunday’s match must have had an effect on the players. Euphoria only lasts so long. 4 points from these two games is a lot better than none and no massive goal tally against.

 

I used to pride myself on my tackling. I think only ever picked up a few yellows and never a red, but if today's standards were upheld, I would have been off every other week!

 

The only threat they posed was the direct ball between our defenders, which is always on when we press high and lose the ball.
Not sure how we counter that because with the full backs pushing up high, the CBs have a vast area to cover. Maybe they need to stay more central, together, but not easy when the opposition play two up top, with both running the channels.
Always disappointing not to win when leading and in total control, but this was at Goodison, so a sign of our improvement.

 

You just can’t make contact with any big-mouthed Brazilian playing for a team with dugouts.

 

You got to look at the positives. We played slick passing attacking football away from home against a team who are pushing like us in the league.

Yes, we missed a pen ...it happens.
We will tire playing the way we do.
Bednarek could have gone off second half and we'd leave with nothing.

 

We should have been out of sight in the first half. But we only have ourselves to blame for that. Everton changed formation (and returned to a 11 players thanks to removing Iwobi) and thereafter a draw was fair.

I still can't get my head around what Lee Mason was thinking when it came to the Bednarek tackle. Other than the fact that, well, it's Lee Mason.

 

He's such an awful ref. Skate ****.

 

Frustrating not to have won that BUT I absolutely love that we have now got an identity back about how we play, both with and against the ball.

Teams know they’re in for a proper battle to beat us

 

Tonight’s result from Goodison Park:
Anti-football 1-1 Football

 

But you only got a red if someone lost a limb or was beaten to the ground with a corner flag. Maybe that was just the Peterlee and District Sunday League.

 

I was surprised that Everton didn't try and go for it more in the final 10 mins. A draw has ended both of our seasons - neither of us are getting 8th now - so risking that point in an attempt to win it would have made sense.

But instead they seemed more happy to just keep us out (which they did quite comfortably - sadly, with a threadbare bench, we had nowhere to turn; Redmond for one definitely needed replacing I thought) and take the point.

 

These dug outs aren’t graves, for when they are shot by a sniper, or get a vicious nudge?

 

Agree and we normally get nothing away at Everton. My comment was about the game in general and season in general. We were the better team and should have won. If we want to push on and do better next season then we have to win these types of games instead of getting a decent point which it was. Hence not being totally happy with the result.

Sounds like Ralph wasn't happy with JWP taking the penalty instead of Ings.

 

Agreed It was disappointing not to win the game from the chances we had. And yeah I couldn't believe Ings wasn't taking the pen.

We'll take it out on utd instead

 

And it’s four in a row for @tomw24!