Richard, I wish I were as easily pleased by mediocrity as you. Unfortunately, I strive for success and while I understand the point about instability in the squad and Moyes bedding in new players, I don't think it's too much to ask that the team tries to keep the ball on the deck and pass it (nor have I forgotten WHY we're bedding players in after the season has started with predictable results). If the likes of Reading and West Bromwich Albion can do it on their first visit to the top flight I'm sure we can ? after all, we've only been there, what, 54 years?!

The fact that you're quite content as long as we finish in the top 10 every season makes me wonder why on earth you bother following football and Everton in particular.

"As long as we get a half-decent result..." Does the fact that success is always another season away and tomorrow never comes give you some perverse pleasure? Because I sure as hell don't understand it; I don't understand how someone can think the way you do, but to each their own, I suppose.

Aappy with a draw in the derby? Ye gods...

Inconsequential cup it maybe to you but it is a cup that we've never won, it's a cup that half of the Premier League is out of already. We are just handing out silverware to the big four, feeding their already bloated egos. If we aren't going to finish in the top six and not going to win the FA cup, it was at least a chance to get some silverware, albeit the Carling Cup. In case it's not been noticed, it's been 14 years since we've won anything. Beggars can't be choosers. Moyes can't take us any further. Wake up please, he's fighting with one hand behind his back, should have had new players in before going to the States.

Richard Dodd wrote "Those of us who look a little deeper than the score-line recognise that our team is going through a mini-reconstruction at the moment and that this,together with some uncertainty on the part of usually water-tight defenders is the reason for a slightly disappointing start to the season"

Slightly disappointing? I?d hate to be around when there?s real disappointment!! We?ve been beaten twice this season by an average team who have undergone more than a ?mini reconstruction? in appointing a new manager with no top level managerial experience but who has got the better of an established Premier League manager. Next time we lose I must remember to look a little deeper than the scoreline for solace!

It?s getting like the apologists for the England team in various competitions over the years. If we?d have beaten the team that then got beaten by the team that then got beaten by the team that reached the final then it would have been England in the final as they would have won all the other games if they hadn?t lost the first game....

Just out of interest, Doddsie, how will we qualify for the Uefa Cup next season? Finishing 5th (and therefore ahead of one of Chelsea, Arsenal, Man Utd, Liverpool or Man City)? Winning the FA Cup maybe (taken more seriously than the Carling Cup by the Cky 4)? Or perhaps by winning the Uefa Cup itself this term?

I?m sorry to say, but we should enjoy our trip to Belgium next week, it?s the last Euro-jollie we will have be having for a while. Unless we could win, I don?t know, the Carling Cup? It has to be viewed as the easiest way in. Course, not this season... or last.. etc etc..

Whilst I agree with Lyndon that Dodd is ridiculous in his level of contentment, I do feel that he reflects what far too many feel about our club. Cheering the team to the rafters after a HOME DRAW with Chelsea comes to mind (the players actually threw their shirts to the crowd!). And the hero worship so many have of our very average manager is another example.

OK, we all know Blue Bill?s skint in football terms and Davey is a hoof-ball manager but we don?t have to accept - and idolise - it as Daffy Dodd seems to do.

Let?s start to demand a little bit more for crissake, we?ve waited long enough!

Er, aren’t the RS sponsored by Carlsberg, not Carling???

Wrong Richard. A derby win will not atone for everything that has happened up until now. It won't atone for two defeats to the mighty Blackburn, shipping 3 goals in successive home games and struggling against all 3 promoted teams.

It will be great if we get a result against them but you really need to look at the bigger picture and a derby win will not mask everything that has been happening at the club over the last 6 months and if you think it will then you are seriously deluded.

Moyes has been managing Everton for six and a half years and we?ve never looked like winning ANYTHING. Last year, when we got to the Carling semis, he and his team froze in the headlights of Chelsea and I?ve lost count of the times we?ve been turned over by minnows in both cup competitions.

People still tell me the man is learning his trade - well if that?s the case he shouldn?t be getting paid £17M over five years whilst complaining he?s starved of investment. Let?s face it, nobody made him blow all his transfer budget on a Belgian rookie, did they? And another thing........

Richard Dodd wrote "Let?s face it, Davey is trying to bed in at least three players who arrived late for the campaign as well as to change the style to a more attacking format. The days of 4-5-1 are long gone and with more expansive players to choose from, formations and tactics have to be given time to evolve and reach perfection."

So what has David Moyes actually won in his time as a manager? A promotion from the 2nd Division to the 1st Division with Preston? David Moyes has achieved best of the rest but unless you win something then it doesn?t count for anything in the long term. <>When you go to the Emirates stadium, Arsenal?s achievements are respresented by trophies and the year that they were won, listed on the upper tiers around the stadium. Wherever we end up playing how will it look to have 4th or 5th place in the Premier League listed and Uefa Cup knockout phase, Champions League qualifying round and Carling Cup semi-final?

I want to see trophies, not keep reading the same old excuses of David Moyes being a young manager and is still learning. Let a young manager learn at a smaller club and then come to us when they have achieved some success. Not use us as a testing ground to gain a reputation. Have a successful reputation first and then enhance it by coming to a bigger club.

Trevor, Who would replace him though?

Can anyone remember the last derby game where Everton were booed off at half- or full-time?

Why is it that, everytime we are shit, and play our typical game of hoofball, we have dicks like you Doddy, who come on here and tell us that Moyes is still learning, he?s bedding in new players, we have injuries etc? It always seems to be the same crap from you.

Just to cheer you up lads,I heard today that the Club are 24hours away from announcing that Moyes has ? at last ? signed his new contract. Kind of makes Barry?s question redundant, doesn?t it?

Oh, shit!!!!

George Gooding wrote "Just to cheer you up lads, I heard today that the Club are 24 hours away from announcing that Moyes has ? at last ? signed his new contract."
Rejoice, oh IMWT(sters), it will be as good as, or better than, signing a new player!!

Richard, let me remind you so far this season of another gem of yours, that Black Bill would sign us a load of new players and they would gel by the time the Derby match arrived. Turns out your wet dream lied through his teeth all summer (nothing new there) about there being money available and the new players don?t appear to have taken the world by storm and the club is leaking goals faster than your pro Bill arguments.

To accept the levels of mediocrity you do in order to cover the inadequacies of your wet dream chairman by saying any cup is worthless you may as well say bothering to turn up to a game is equally as pointless as long as we don?t drop out of the league, the similar mid table bollocks that Bill implied whenever he has to accept the club have overachieved.

Sorry Richard but you just don?t seem to get it with football or any competitive sport whatsoever ? a you compete to attempt to win things, if you don?t want to win and just want to be supernumerary then why bother taking part at all. I want to see the team I shell my hard earned out on actually compete, the defeat to Blackburn being a prime example of the malaise eating the heart of the club like a cancer. If we had been on the receiving end of the kids that destroyed Sheffield Utd then it would be disappointing but accepted that the better team on the night won and what we should aspire to, unfortunately we played negative, dour alehouse football to which we got our just desserts - defeat. To accept that blindly is utter crass nonsense.

0 out of 10 ......... again

I know we?re all on a downer after last night but if George is right about Moyes signing his new contract it will give the team and fans one hell of a lift ahead of the Derby game. I do believe he continues to be agreat ?manager-in waiting? and that we shall not have to look up to many sides come the end of this season.

After last night, he?d be a bloody fool not to sign up. If he hangs on much longer he?ll get the sack!!

Carling - Carlsberg..... Not the same thing,

BTW - A draw in the derby would be a dream.... I can only see a severe tonking coming our way this weekend.

It is scandalous that we didn’t build properly after last season. We could well be bottom half of the table and out of two cups by the end of September.. This season could be over before it bloody begins.... KENWRIGHT OUT.. (rant over...)

Yes, it would be typical of Kenwright to give Moyes the £4M a year he’s been holding out for just as the speccies are screaming for his bloody head!
Cue Tony Marsh.

What a great opportunity Moyes and Kenwright have spurned this summer to push the club on to a higher level. Instead, they have dithered and lied to us when they should have been getting the players in to do just this. If he is going to sign the new contract let's hope hes going to play some attractive football as this dross is as dull as ditch water or will it be no need to change everything is ok.

I always knew Davey would sign up. There?s no better manager in the land and I just hope he will one day have the backing of a weathy owner to prove it!

I think you are in love, Kay! Moyes is the jamiest bastard in football!

Richard... please explain the following;

"should we find that competition as our only focus until after Christmas"

Sorry, but in your fantasy world of the truly delusional is there a stream of January cup competitions for clubs that couldn’t get their act together by August...when the season started for everyone else?

Richard, you?ve surpassed yourself, you really have. You talk about Davey bedding in our three late arrivals as if they had missed their flights. They were late arrivals because of Bill Kenwright?s ineptitude and David Moyes connivance with it.

You know Richard, blind loyalty is not really what being a supporter is about. I?m sure you want the best for the club but can you really not see what?s wrong at Everton won?t be fixed by a point in the derby or by the new boys bedding in. On and off the pitch, the club is a shambles.

Richard get some balls ffs I hope for your sake your wife is as easily pleased.

Here we go again, George, another bit of insider info, "I have it on good authority etc etc". I’d hoped all that crap ended with the transfer window shutting.

I’m hoping Moyes doesn’t sign. it seems most Evertonians are happy with 5th place finishes, no silverware and fuck all entertainment on the pitch. I’m sick of it and if Moyes signs his contract then I’m not renewing my season ticket.

What about Donadoni or Mancini? Top class managers who’ve achieved something already in the game at the highest level.

Richard, I really don?t get you sometimes. You over-optimism is blinding you.

Don’t pay attention to Dodd, he is on another wind up.

It could be worse.... we could be Newcastle!!!

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Tara then Alan Clarke.

Doddy is just Marsh’s nemesis, the opposite sides of the same coin. It’s all about balance, something that was missing on Wednesday night.

Could you imagine the stick we would get if this shite was put on a Liverpool board, Evertonians happy with a poxy draw at home that would make it one point at home out of nine, you just could not make it up, that is small club mentality.
When Tony Marsh slates the League and Uefa cup he gets slaughtered, to me Richard that cup was our only opportunity to possibly win a cup, or at least make a final and most certainly our best chance to get in Europe given the strength of the likes of Villa and City this season, are you serious or just a fucking top draw wind up merchant, whatever I would love to hear you talk your views in a County Road boozer.

We had/have no chance of making any final this year. 1st top 4 side we face would knock us out or at the semi final stages we’d bottle it as usual against a team we should beat. The team lacks strength both mentally & physically.

Richard Dodd wrote "As I say, as long as we get at least a draw in the derby, all we again be OK in the state of Everton."
So as we lost then I’m assuming that it is not OK ? Or will the next game (or the one after that) be the start of our season and a glorious top ten finish !!