COLUMNIST PAUL TRAILL

Normal service resumed

With all my chores done for the day, I was in the mood for beer and was in The Spellow with Gary comfortably in time for the Manchester derby on the TV. Christ, I never thought I’d see a pub full of blues erupt over a Wayne Rooney goal ever again!

Ste arrived in good time with the team news. I was a little surprised to hear Hibbert had been dropped though it was perhaps deserved after a rather poor game at Fulham last weekend. Heitinga came in for him at right back. We were all a little disappointed Bilyaletdinov hadn’t made it but this gave Osman another chance to prove himself. Saha began in attack with Jo, Yakubu, Gosling, Hibbert and Nash the main names on the bench. We left the Manchester derby finely poised at 2-2 just as Bellamy scored a screamer.

At Goodison Park, we won the toss and so attacked towards the Park End in the first half. It was a scrappy opening to the game as both teams probed. Blackburn came closest to scoring in the opening exchanges when El-Hadji Diouf nodded against the crossbar with a reasonable opportunity. The Senegalese has since the game made the headline for the wrong reasons after allegedly racially abusing a ball-boy. I remember the incident but of course couldn’t hear what he is alleged to have said to the ball-boy. I’ll be interested to see how that develops.

Our goal which got us going kinda came out of nothing. Baines played a fairly low ball into the box from a free kick. “Shocking delivery” were my words just as Saha got a boot to it and calmly side-footed it home to give us an advantage. This certainly settled us down and it was very close to being 2-0 when Osman made a good run into the box and drove at goal on the turn, forcing a smart save from Robinson.

At times defending was frantic, though generally solid with Distin and Yobo getting themselves in the way of almost everything Blackburn could throw at us. At half-time we were fairy comfortable at 1-0.

Into the second half and it was more of the same. You felt a second goal would seal it and this kinda proved to be the case. Good footwork by Fellaini to create space for himself on the right flank. He got the ball onto his left foot and placed in a hell of a cross which Saha met majestically to head into the corner of the net. 2-0 and game over really.

Just in case this wasn’t enough though, from a corner our stand in skipper got on the end of some real hesitation in the Blackburn defense to slam home and make it 3-0.

With still around half an hour to play I was hoping Saha might be withdrawn to give Yakubu some playing time but Moyes opted for Jo instead, suggesting to me that Moyes is looking to perhaps start with Yakubu away at Hull on Wednesday night.

Other changes included the introductions of Hibbert and Gosling... though I’ve forgotten whom they replaced. All the substitutions affected the flow of the game in the second half and we actually sneaked off a few minutes before the end to get back the pub for the Chelsea vs Spurs game.

After a couple in The Spellow, we moved on to the Harlech Castle for a quick beer before going separate ways, me to the bus stop, Gary to the train station. Whilst waiting for the bus I bumped into Darren Griffiths who works within Media and Communications at Everton.

I met Darren a few years ago at an Everton charity game with ‘Barcelona Legends’. He looked after me well then and gave me an opportunity to interview Graham Stuart after the game. Nice to see he’s still a good fella, even if he did look ruddy exhausted.

A nice day at the game. Nice to see normal service has resumed.

Player Ratings:

• Howard: Not really a great deal to do. 6
• Baines: Good game, both defensively and offensively. 8
• Distin: Has settled in fantastically. You wouldn’t have thought this was just his fourth appearance for Everton, was more like his 100th. 8
• Yobo: He’s excelling as captain and is probably in as good form now as he possibly ever has been for Everton. I think he works well with Distin and its nice to see him getting on the scoresheet over the last few games… we need to get them Lescott goals from somewhere. 8
• Heitinga: An indifferent game. Rather sound in defense I guess but nothing spectacular. Seemed marginally improved later on in midfield. Not a bad debut though hard to judge what he’s like from this game. Seems to use the ball well but one thing is clear — he can’t shoot! 6
• Rodwell: Ridiculous given his age and that’s he’s only played just over 20 games in his career so far but you already seem to know what you’re going to get from Rodwell. He’s so composed you forget he’s only 18. 7
• Cahill: A useful display from Cahill, full of his usual energy. 6
• Fellaini: Great cross for the second goal. He seems to have added the art of winning the ball back to his armoury this season also. 7
• Pienaar: My man of the match. His work rate is just phenomenal. Never fails to impress me with his tracking back as well as his effectiveness in attack. 8
• Osman: Had a sound game and on another day could have gotten a goal or two. 7
• Saha: You can’t really ask for much more than that from your striker eh. 8
• Jo: Did alright. Ponced about a bit but didn’t see much of the ball given that we’d taken our foot off the gas by the time he came on. 6
• Hibbert: Not on long, can’t judge.
• Gosling: Not on long, can’t judge.

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