Everton V Wolves - Match Report

It's stating the obvious but it's true - after Everton's recent run of defeats, the result - not the performance - was the most important thing on Saturday. Wolves came to Goodison on the back of a good home win, and despite some obvious nervousness Everton managed to get the job done with an ugly win, albeit a deserved one.

Whilst a few hundred are determined to make off the field matters the focus of attention, Saturday was all about matters on the pitch. 

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Make no mistake, this was a massive game, and losing it just didn't bear thinking about. David Moyes had revealed some injury problems, and whilst Phil Neville and Sylvain Distin's absence wasn't too much of a surprise, the revelation that Jack Rodwell has a rib injury was. The young midfielder has been much improved in recent weeks, and his impressive England performances suggested a surge in confidence that Everton would benefit from. It wasn't to be, and we can only hope the injury is not as serious as Moyes has warned.

With Everton down to the proverbial bare bones, therefore, Osman partnered Fellaini in midfield, with Coleman and Drenthe wide and Cahill behind Saha up front. Options on the substitutes bench looked particularly sparse, but even so, it was fucking Wolves. Surely, SURELY we'd have enough for them.

The game kicked off with Everton looking slightly cagey and pressured, and Wolves adopting the 'we'll take 0-0 thank you very much' formation. We always seem to struggle when teams do that, and were guilty at times of being impatient and rushing possession. Phil Jagielka - superb defensively - betrayed his lack of training time with far too many aimless long balls, and Tony Hibbert - again, sound at the back and as ever showing a top notch attitude - was equally wasteful. We don't create much, and whilst that's not the Huyton Cafu's fault, we can't afford for five or six crosses from good positions to float gently into the goalkeepers hands. His crossing's been better this season - hopefully this was a blip.

Everton improved towards the middle of the half with Saha and Cahill holding the ball up better and getting early balls out wide. Drenthe and Osman both flashed dangerous crosses in from the left, and Saha went closest when Cahill linked up with the impressive Coleman - the Frenchman's shot slamming into the turf and saved well by Hennessey. It wasn't free flowing dominance, but Everton were comfortably the better side with Tim Howard almost a spectator.

So what happened next? Wolves scored. Course they fucking did.

After a laboured piece of possession down the Wolves left, We again failed to stop a cross - one of the most annoying parts of this season - David Edwards got onto it, Fellaini stuck out a leg, penalty. It looked nailed on at first glance, and whilst TV replays suggested contact was minimal, we couldn't really have too many complaints. Stephen Hunt gave Howard no chance with the kick.

Frankly, it was difficult to see us scoring two from that point. The game was typically Everton this season - dominating possession without looking too dangerous, then a couple of daft mistakes and we're behind and chasing the game. It was a welcome relief, therefore, that the equaliser came quickly. Cahill was stupidly fouled by Roger Johnson, Baines whipped in a peach of a free kick and Jagielka headed past Hennessey. Thank fuck for that.

With only two minutes to go to half time, that seemed to be that for the first half, but in truth Everton should have gone in ahead. First, a brilliant lay-off by Louis Saha sent Drenthe through, but Christophe Berra recovered well to block his shot at the last minute. From the resulting corner, Hennessey saved well from Fellaini and Cahill was dragged down by Karl Henry in the area. Now, Joey Barton is right about very few things, but he's got Henry spot on - he's absolute garbage. Inexplicably though, the referee waved away the Everton protests. 1-1 at half time.

Having regained the momentum, you hoped that Everton would push on second half. Did they? Did they shite. It was turgid and laboured, and whilst we were never in trouble of conceding again - Howard must have been freezing - we only sporadically looked threatening. Cahill missed an absolute sitter after Coleman again barged down the right wing and Saha flicked on, and a couple of speculative efforts from Fellaini and Drenthe found the Upper Gwladys. When Moyes switched Cahill for Vellios (correctly), we looked more balanced - the young striker does the simple things really well, hold the ball up, lay it off, get in the box - and gradually the pressure increased. A series of corners led to another fantastic block by Berra to deny Saha, and from the next kick the Frenchman was barged by Stephen Ward - penalty. Both managers described it as 'soft' - fair enough - but it was also a stupid challenge by Ward, especially given the Henry one previously. Just about a pen then, and Baines made no mistake.

The expected barrage from Wolves never really materialised, and in truth Everton saw out the game pretty comfortably, with the exception of one free kick which Jamie O'Hara put wide.


Bilyaletdinov replaced Drenthe and apparently there were some boos from the hard-of-thinking areas of our support - and to state the obvious again, we all know the Russian's faults but really, it's just fucking stupid and pointless.

Not the hammering we all wanted then but three points to start this run of winnable games that we have coming up. Bolton next.

calcioEFC

Everton - Howard, Hibbert, Baines, Jagielka, Heitinga, Coleman, Osman, Fellaini, Drenthe, Cahill, Saha.

Subs - Mucha, Mustafi, Bilyaletdinov, Barkley, Vellios, Stracqualursi, Gueye

Goals - Jagielka (43), Baines (pen 83)

MOTM - Coleman.