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Match Updates David Moyes shows few signs of doing anything different upfront as Duncan Ferguson is made captain for this one alongside Wayne Rooney after his exertions for England in midweek. Radzinski and Campbell are on the bench; Francis Jeffers is nowhere to be seen. Carsley is finally dropped, but is Linderoth really going to make a difference and provide the much-needed service to the frontline? Unlikely, as Unsworth is playing, and will be lumping those balls up for the lamppost. At least Yobo is back, and hopefully can stabilze the leaky defence. Everton showed intent with an early corner and enjoyed more of the possession in the opening stages, with the reward soon coming. On 7 mins, Rooney picked up the ball from Linderoth, who had won it brilliantly in the tackle; from 25 yards out The Young Man then fired it in and got a nice deflection to fool Neimi and open the scoring. Rooney got away and into a great position inside the box but he wasted it with a weak shot after trying to lay it off to a lumbering Ferguson, missing a glorious chance to score again. Another great piece of work from Rooney saw him cutting inside again to beat his man and he lashed his shot in but it flew just over the bar. Another good move from Watson and Kilbane got the ball to Ferguson but his header was saved. Everton were now really beginning to shine and dominate but not making it count until Kilbane controlled the ball well and fed it to Gravesen. He floated a great cross in for Ferguson, and there was the Big Yin to nod it in. 2-0! It looked a lot like handball from Lundekvam a few minutes later but Ferguson was penalized for pushing him. Ferguson had a great chance to make it three before half-time after a superb run from Rooney, but the Big Yin sidefooted it over the bar when he really should have scored. Southampton made a couple of changes after the break, with James Beattie really trying to make amends early on. It eventually paid off when Everton failed to defend another attack, with Unsworth failing to clear and Philips smacked it in from short range to make a game of it. Had we seen Everton's one half of football? Could they hang on for the vital win? Everton appeared to have weathered the storm when Unsworth and Phillips tumbled down together and the Saints gave a big shout for a penalty but the referee played on. But worryingly, Everton were struggling to impose themselves on the resurgent home side... But a good break say Watson running at the Saints down the right-inside channel and playing it back to Rooney who hammered it home from 18 yards, rifling it into the right top corner. Shirt off, pride and prowess right in front of a very happy band of travelling Evertonians who had suffered so much this season. Well done, lad! Linderoth then played in the Saints by bringing down Delap right on the 18-yd line and Beattie smacked home the penalty to keep Everton nerves jangling. Everton were still under pressure going into to 2 mins of injury time when Fenandes got the equalizer with a fantastic shot from 25 yards out which went in off the post. Losing the second half by the horrible score of 3-1, especially when Everton were 3-1 up in the game with just 12 minutes to go — and throwing away two precious, precious points... criminal! |
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| Match Facts | |||||
| Southampton
(4-4-2) Red & white shirts, black shorts, red socks |
Everton (4-4-2) Blue shirts, white shorts, blue socks |
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Birmingham City (A)
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