Match Preview

Are we getting fed up of Fulham or what?  It's all the fault of Luis Boa Morte, who started the mass brawl two seasons ago in the first game between the two clubs for a long, long time, after the Crabby Cottagers finally gained promotion to the Premiership following a long and clearly deserved absence form top-flight football.

And now, the Portuguese player has ratcheted up the tension by his highly dubious claims of racist abuse from Duncan Ferguson.  Why has it taken him 5 days before coming out with these accusations?  Why did he do it in the media?  Why was it not reported much sooner to the FA?  And why does he think of going public with such claims only after he himself has been charged with misconduct by the FA?  The whole thing clearly stinks. 

But it all adds to the atmosphere for this critical game, which will strengthened by the presence of  more than 3,500 Evertonians, many of whose travel costs have been paid by Everton Vice-Chairman, Bill Kenwright.  Let's hope this will be one game in which the crowd really can make a difference. 

Everton will need something special, something that has been distinctly lacking in recent games if they are to move on in this competition.  Is it goals?  Is it midfield possession?  Is it simply the ability to play football with a modicum of skill and continuity?  It would really be a massive help if they could actually get the ball into the opposition penalty area in a way which creates chances that can actually be converted by the plethora of goal-shy strikers at Moyes's disposal. 

But it continues to be the act of getting the ball ion the net which is causing the most problems.  It was interesting that Moyes kept Franny Jeffers on the bench against Liverpool — despite him actually scoring a goal against his primary employers in the previous game.   So much for goalscorers earning their place in the team...  Oh, hang on!  David Moyes did say those who score consistently will get selected.  So, no changes there, then!

David Unsworth may be back for Everton, and will no doubt play with his heart as ever on his sleeve.  While Fulham have lost Luis Saha to Manchester United, but they will have ex-Blue Brian McBride in their front-line.  At the weekend, McBride scored again in his second Premiership debut.  And again that was against Spurs; and again, it was his USA team-mate Kasey Keller that he beat.  Let's hope he's got that whole thing out of his system!

Matchday Stats

This will be the 39th meeting between Everton and Fulham in all competitions, and the 18th away to Fulham.  This will also be the 7th meeting between the sides in the FA Cup, and the 3rd at Fulham.

Everton's full record against Fulham is:

Our record away to Fulham is:

The last match between the two sides was 10 days ago when the teams ended all-square in the first match at Goodison Park.  The winners of this match have been drawn at home against West Ham United.

Everton's last replay in the competition was two years ago when Everton beat Crewe Alexandra 2-1 at Crewe to progress into the Quarter Finals against Middlesbrough which was Walter Smith's last game in charge of the club.

Everton have yet to beat Fulham at Loftus Road, but their biggest victory away to Fulham was 5-1 in Division One in October 1950.  Our biggest defeat at Fulham was 0-3 in November 1952 in Division Two.

Everton's paltry three wins at Fulham have seen three different scorelines (1-0, 3-2 and 5-1).  Fulham's most common victory is shared between 2-0 and 2-1 with 0-0 and 1-1 being the most common draws.

Everton's record for 4 February is:

This will be the first meeting between the two sides on this date.  Everton's last match on this date was in 1995 when Norwich City were beaten 2-1 at Goodison Park.  The four previous FA Cup meetings on this date have seen Everton victories against Nottingham Forest (4-2 at home in 1893), Liverpool (2-1 at home in 1911) and Sunderland (2-1 at home in 1925), with the other FA Cup match on this date being a 1-1 draw away to Liverpool in 1905.

Milestone's that can be reached in this game:

• If Alan Stubbs plays any part in the game it will be his 100th appearance for Everton in all competitions.
• If David Unsworth starts the match he will move into joint 44th place for all-time FA Cup starts for Everton with Robert Balmer, Alf Milward and Joe Royle on 23 starts.  If he plays any part of the match then he will move into joint 41st place for all-time FA Cup appearances for Everton joining Howard Kendall, Alex 'Sandy' Brown, Billy Cook and Val Harris on 24 appearances.

Steve Flanagan

Report

After the euphoria of (another) injury time equaliser and the drama of extra time, it might be easy to forget how poor we were for 90 minutes tonight.  Words cannot begin to describe how bad we were first half.  Words can, however, just about describe the improved second half performance : garbage.

First half in particular, we played absolute Conference (never mind Nationwide) football - a heady mix of wayward passes into touch, midfield head tennis and aimless punts to our diminutive strikers.  Shocking. 

Pistone and Unsworth were all over the place in central defence for the first 15 minutes or so but, to be fair, settled down quite well after that.  Remarkably, given the rubbish that we had endured up to that point, we carved out two glorious chances just before half time.

First, Nyarko, who had been abysmal up to that point, played a beautiful through ball to Radzinksi, whose shot came back off the post.  Bad luck?  Poor finishing? Call it what you will...  Next, Radzinski put in a great cross but Rooney, steaming in, managed to head it straight into the ground when he really *had* to score and it was scrambled away. Scandalous.

0-0 HT and mixed feelings.  We had been absolutely useless and yet could/should have been 2-0 up.

Second half and more of the same, although Kilbane was unlucky with one shot which was deflected to safety by a great block from (I think) Volz and Nyarko again rose briefly from his slumber to play Radzinski in, only for his shot to creep wide.

Inevitably (and fitting the pattern of recent weeks), after all those fluffed chances, Fulham were going to score. Sure enough, they seized upon a tweedledee/tweedle dumb moment from Nyarko and Gravesen in midfield and the ball was worked to Inamoto, who curled a great shot into the bottom corner.

On came Jeffers and Watson for Nyarko and Radzinski and there was a marginal improvement, with greater movement down the right.  Jeffers's movement was as intelligent as ever (I'll come to his finishing later !) and one lovely move saw Watson send him scampering away down the right, only for Carsley to shoot straight at van der Sar from Franny's neat pull back.

We then seemed to lose our impetus and our season (not to mention my will to live) started to ebb away in depressing fashion.  But in injury time, came a frantic final bombardment and, in amidst the chaos, Jeffers looped a header backwards, which seemed to take an eternity to cross the line.  Cue delirious scenes in the packed away end.

There was still time, however, for Jeffers to repeat his staggering last-minute goal line feat against Chelsea.  Wayne turned his man with a genius bit of skill (Cruyff, Schmuyff) and the ball fell to Franny two yards out for the simplest of headers.  Remarkably, he somehow contrived to head it back out.  One day, we'll look back at it and laugh.  Possibly.

All of a sudden, Fulham were on the ropes and so it continued into extra time.  Again, though, Franny scooped another simple chance well over the bar.  Once more, you just knew we'd get punished and sure enough, the superb Malbranque capitalised on some slack defending and fired home the winner.

Not much to report after that as the stuffing had been pretty much knocked out of us.  Rooney seemed to hesitate slightly as he was sent through, allowing Fulham to clear and that was about it.

On the plus side, there was a great atmosphere in the away end tonight — not a hint of the shameful racism of the last visit (well, not in my earshot anyway) unless you count singing "Duncan, Duncan Ferguson", which was a bit dubious given the circumstances.

So, the cup run is dead, long live the relegation battle.  With that midfield, it's going to be a *long* three months.

Ratings:

• Martyn - 8 - MOM. String of fine saves to keep us in it.
• Hibbert - 4 - Oh dear.  In all but appearance, Hibbo has turned into Earl Barrett.  His distribution and attacking play really was shocking.
• Unsworth - 5 - a bit shakier than before his injury, possibly due to playing with a new partner.  Generous helpings of aimless punting downfield.
• Pistone - 6 - recovered from a rocky start to play quite well.
• Naysmith - 5 - looked vulnerable faced with his tormentor in chief, Malbranque. Some decent tackles, passing pretty variable.
• Carsley - 5 - offered nothing going forward on the right and the balance of the team was all wrong while he was out there.  Slightly better in the middle.  Oh for Davis or Malbranque in our midfield.
• Gravesen - 5 - one of the top midfielders in Europe, don't you know.  Flashes of skill followed by anonymity followed by utter ineptitude.  You know the score by now.
• Nyarko - 3 - do NOT be fooled by the highlights.  Two nice through balls do not make up for his truly shocking, one-paced performance tonight.  Unless the ball is within a two-metre radius of him, he is not interested.  He has got ability but he is just not tuned into the pace of the Premiership.
• Kilbane - 6 - best of a bad bunch first half and he never stopped running throughout.  Not his best game for us by any means though.
• Rooney - 5 - really had to feed off scraps tonight.  He produced a few great moments of skill but he should have buried that header in the first half.
• Radzinski - 5 - worked as hard as ever but this wasn't his night and his first touch was pretty ropey.  Should have scored from at least one of his two chances.
• Watson - 6 - actually gave us some movement down our right, which had been non-existent first half.
• Jeffers - 5 - hard to give Franny a rating as he got the goal and his movement was excellent but those two misses will haunt every Blue in the ground for months.

Andy Westlake