Everton 0 – 0 Newcastle Utd
I travelled up on Friday, as I was staying at my sister’s on her insistence. I took the dog, which was an epic. The hardest thing was getting her into the Uber. She wasn’t having it, so the driver got out and we carried out a two-man lift to get a Rhodesian Ridgeback into the cab. Not happy, but she settled.
To be fair, she was good as gold on the train, with lots of people making a fuss of her and the staff giving me free water for her, even though I’d brought some! No free drinks for me though. I did ask, but to no avail.
My sister picked me up at Runcorn. A few drinks at the Childe of Hale for those who know it. We didn’t hang one on. It’s a nice place. Me and the brother-in-law discussed mostly football, him being a Liverpool supporter, but one of the more sensible ones. His youngest son is an Evertonian, so he has some empathy, and he has known me for decades, so understands me.
Up early the next morning to walk the hound and I wanted to get to Goodison in good time. I got dropped off at South Parkway and headed into Lime Street. Plenty of time for a few in the Northwestern. There was the standard hen party; strangely dressed as Bavarian barmaids. Quite entertaining as they were well into their day out and hitting the shots.
On to County Road. As I was there early, so I was able to have one in the Brick as it was quiet but starting to fill up as I left and headed to the Winslow before having a visit to St Luke’s and a walk around the Heritage Society.
On the performance and result, it wasn’t pretty to watch and arguably, Newcastle should have won that. But we got a result and ground out a valuable point through dogged resilience.
I always like to praise players when they deserve it. I’m not someone who has targets. If they play well, I will say so. If they don’t play well, I will say so. Whoever they are.
I thought Keane played well. As did Ashley Young, demonstrating his experience. I felt for Calvert-Lewin, constantly having the ball pumped up to him against their 6ft-7in defender. It’s just not happening for Tarkowski right now.
Ndiaye is going to continue to excite us. He’s got a spark about him that gets the supporters on their feet. And he will get better.
On the Doucoure “goal”, I knew it was offside straight away and watching it back confirmed that. Good finish though. Get into those positions and he’ll grab one or two. Just hold the run.
The penalty. For me, I thought it was one at the time and watching it back I still think the same. The player had his hand on Dominic’s back and forces him to the ground. Every day a penalty for me.
The midfield? Did we have one until Idrissa came on? Mostly AWOL and bypassed by Pickford. We looked scared of the football and couldn’t hold possession, which was frustrating a lot around me. We may get frustrated by the Pickford punts, but that must be due to instruction, because he doesn’t do it for England.
Nice to see Jimmy Marin the kit man on the pitch at half-time. Fine service to the club and very popular with generations of players.
Pickford gets my Man of the Match nomination. Not just for the penalty save, he made a few other crucial ones and was a bit less reluctant to come off his line.
I got back to my sister’s and had an interesting conversation about James Garner with my nephew. He suggested he was our best player. As well as being calved open in the middle of the park, I thought we were exposed down our right. I don’t question his effort and know he is doing a job due to the limitations we have at full-back, but the sooner we get him back in to a central midfield role, the better.
I see a Mosaic is planned for the stadium… but no Kevin Sheedy though. Once more, even though they were not playing at home, I was surrounded by day trippers in their new Liverpool shirts and shopping bags in town. We need to show our presence in the city. Inside and outside Lime Street. At the Airport. Not just inside Bramley-Moore Dock. Paint the city Blue.
Back on the train on Sunday with the dog. No direct trains, so we had to change at Crewe. The planned train was rammed, and you had no chance of getting on, so an hour wait for the next one. It’s a good job you got me a point, Everton.
On the plus side, Everton has just randomly awarded me 10,000 reward points, which gives me quite a bit of credit.
In all, a good weekend, as watching the Blues always is. Fulham next.