Match Preview

With any sort of last-ditch bid for Europe looking a decidedly remote possibility, Everton are left with a top-half finish as their only realistic target, a feat that will remain out of their grasp if their recent penchant for conceding late goals continues.

Despite the �500,000 reward to the club for every place gained in the table between now and the end of the season, what little drive there is among the players to improve their lot is being frustrated by the short-comings of a poor midfield and if it weren't for one Wayne Rooney, who knows what predicament we would find ourselves in.

Rooney and Duncan Ferguson are two of the four players Everton currently have suspended thanks to their transgressions at Leicester a fortnight ago.  Stubbs is ruled out with a groin injury.  Campbell is carrying a back injury and Yobo played last week with a sprained ankle: both players only returned to training on Friday. 

Added to that, Francis Jeffers � who would have been the likely partner for Tomasz Radzinski � is apparently struggling with a back injury.

Bare bones indeed, with only 15 outfield players to chose from.  But Moyes refuses to bring back any of the seven players who are currently out on loan so he may have no option but to satisfy the curiosity of the fans and try James McFadden up front after his goalscoring exploits for Scotland this week.

Newcastle are chasing the fourth Champions League spot and go into this fixture with five successive home wins behind them. Everton have only won once on the road all season so this would appear to be a foregone conclusion.

However, Moyes's side is always difficult to beat and come to St James' Park on a five-game unbeaten streak of their own. Plus, they have a small score to settle � in this fixture last season the Blues were robbed of a seventh-successive win by the dubious dismissal of Joseph Yobo whih indirectly led to an Alan Shearer wonder-goal and Craig Bellamy's late winner earning all the spoils for the Magpies.

Lyndon Lloyd

Matchday Stats

This will be the 148th meeting between Everton and Newcastle in all competitions, and the 73rd at St James' Park.  This match will be the 22nd meeting in the Premier League.

Everton's full record against Newcastle is:

Our record at St James' Park against Newcastle is:  v  14:00
v 15:00

The last match between the two sides was earlier this season on 13 September when goals from Thomasz Radzinski and Duncan Ferguson secured a 2-2 draw at Goodison Park.  The last meeting at St James' Park was on 1 December 2002 when strikes from Alan Shearer and Craig Bellamy cancelled out Kevin Campbell's early goal to stop Everton's record-breaking 6-game winning streak in the Premier League.

Everton's biggest victory away to Newcastle is 4-0, which has occurred twice.  The last was on Boxing Day in 1986, and matched the 4-0 victory on 8 April 1961.  The biggest defeat Everton have suffered at Newcastle was an 8-2 reversal on 7 November 1959.

The most common victory for Everton is 2-1, which has happened five times in Everton's 17 victories at St James' Park.  Newcastle's most common victory is 1-0, which has happened ten times in their 39 home victories.  The most common draw between the sides is 0-0, which has happened six times out of the 16 draws in total.

Everton's record for 3 April is:

This will be the first meeting between these sides on this date.  The last Premier League match Everton played on 3 April was in 1999 against Liverpool at Anfield when goals from Olivier Dacourt and Francis Jeffers could not stop a 3-2 defeat.  The match itself was overshadowed by the celebratory 'grass eating' antics of a certain Robbie Fowler.

Steve Simonsen will celebrate his 25th birthday today.  Edgar Chadwick and Alf Milward were members of the England side that lost 2-1 to Scotland at the Crystal Palace on this day in 1897.  John Bell appeared for Scotland in the same match.  12 years later, in 1909, Bertie Freeman made his second and last England appearance as an Everton player as the Auld Enemy were beaten 2-0, again at the Crystal Palace.  Alan Ball and Ray Wilson turned out for England in the 1968 European Championship qualifier at Wembley Stadium, when Spain were beaten 1-0.

Milestone's that can be reached in this game:

• If Lee Carsley starts the match, it will be his 50th start for Everton in all competitions.
• If Joseph Yobo plays any part in the match, it will be his 50th appearance for Everton in all competitions.
• If Wayne Rooney scores a hat-trick before the end of the season, he will be beat William Dean's record of the youngest ever Everton player to score three goals in a match.

Steve Flanagan

Defensive lapses cost Everton dear

This one was hard to take. As we drag our feet towards into the final stretch of a frustrating season it remains painfully clear that the Everton of this season is a shadow of the side that finished a respectable seventh last time out. In addition, with each passing game, the prospect of salvaging anything from 2003/04 � namely a top-half finish, drifts further and further away.

It seems as though it's either the defence or the attack that is firing on something approaching all cylinders but David Moyes can't get them on song at the same time. Today, while the attacking partnership of Tomasz Radzinski and Kevin Campbell was badly let down by the latter's apparent lack of mobility (dare we suggest that he played with the back strain that was supposed to have ruled him out of this fixture) and effectiveness, the defence caved in at vital juntures to condemn the Blues to their first defeat in five games.

Moyes, whose decisions are mimicking that of his predecessor more with every passing week, employed Alessandro Pistone at right back (and the wisdom of using a left-footed player on the right was open to question on a few occasions as the former Magpie struggled to provide service to the front two on his weaker foot.

In the absence of Alan Stubbs and the sorely-missed David Weir, David Unsworth partnered Joseph Yobo, with Gary Naysmith rounding out the back four. In midfield, Tobias Linderoth filled the revolving central position alongside Thomas Gravesen and, obviously, James McFadden was ignored up front in favour of Campbell.

The game was barely five minutes old when Newcastle opened the scoring. A clearance by Shay Given was flicked on by Alan Shearer, Craig Bellamy latched onto the loose ball and shrugged Unsworth's challenge off to create all the space he needed to slot it past the stranded Nigel Martyn.

It was route-one football at its best and Bobby Robson's men employed the strategy all afternoon with varying degrees of success.

Shearer had another header easily saved before, out of the blue, Everton equalised. Radzinski turned inside in the area before squaring the ball perfectly for Gravesen who swept it past Given with 13 minutes on the clock.

Four minutes later, the Blues could have been in front when great work by Linderoth ended in the Swede laying a square ball off to Campbell whose effort was deflected inches wide.

But it was Newcastle who scored next. Kieron Dyer rose and headed a cross awkwardly into the ground, the ball kicking up and over Martyn's despairing fingers to make it 2-1 with 21 minites gone.

The goal stunned Everton into temporary submission and there was little in the way of action from either side between then and half time.

Within a minute of the restart, however, the visitors went agonisingly close once more when Yobo connected with a Naysmith corner from the left but his effort skimmed off the top of the crossbar.

Again, though, it was the Magpies who were gifted a goal. Campbell challenged for the ball in the centre circle resulting in a bizarre back-pass that sent Shearer into the clear one-on-one with Martyn after Yobo's contorted attempt to block it failed miserably. Newcastle's number 9 made no mistake, sliding the ball past ther 'keeper to make it 3-1.

Still Everton came forward and Kevin Kilbane somehow managed to direct a header to wrong side of the post from another Naysmith corner and when Steve Watson steered a header into the goal with aplomb from 10 yards out, the linesman flagged, erroneously judging by television replays, for offside and the "goal" was chalked off.

Moyes then threw McFadden and Nyarko into the fray at the expense of Linderoth and Kilbane, both of whom had had pretty good games. But the Blues made little headway until nine minutes from time when Yobo popped up at the far post and headed home to set up a grandstand finish... that never materialised.

Instead, annoyingly, Shearer had the last word. Substitute Lee Bowyer's shot was parried by Martyn but it fell straight to Shearer who rapped it into the net in injury time to finish off Everton's fading challenge.

Ultimately, despite their two goals and how easily they could have earned a point from this game, there were long periods when David Moyes's side looked like a team going nowhere, merely going through the motions as the end of the season draws closer.

While Moyes arrived as an energetic bent on using youth to fuel his revolution at Goodison Park, the frustrations of the position are clearly making him more conservative and more, well, Walter-esque. The insistence on playing a so-called "big man" alongside Radzinski is prudent on one level given the paucity of talent in the midfield, but Campbell's presence was more a hindrance than a help.

As safety from relegation becomes more certain and the remaining games less important, Moyes simply must rediscover his adventurous side and use the likes of McFadden up front and Kilbane in central midfield. Because with precious little to spend this summer, he is once again going to have to squeeze the best out of the his existing squad next season

Lyndon Lloyd