ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

They had read the scipt

?Wow! You couldn?t have scripted that game!? a Manchester City supporting friend texted last night.

Dreadful passing, zero patience or composure in possession, poor technique, bad decision making? Alas, there?s so much that could easily have been scripted.

The bright spots for me were McFadden?s goal (obviously), as well as some hilarious commentary from Channel Five. The pick of the comments came in the first half: ?A second goal now would be a disaster for Everton ? in footballing terms.? As opposed to what other terms, exactly? Political? Metaphysical? Also, was it me, or did Kevin Ratcliffe on more than one occasion refer to ?Metalarsis?? He seemed unable to decide what the opposition were called. Otherwise, I really enjoyed his ?partisan-yet-critical? approach. Throughout, he sounded genuinely concerned at our performance, whereas John Barnes (and who can blame him?) seemed barely able to contain his glee during the match at Goodison.

Consensus among the pundits seemed to be, ?Everton need to learn from this experience.? The result, at least, means we?ll now get the chance to. I?d settle for a team who, perhaps just once-in-a-while, exercised a little patience, and kept hold of the football ? if only for a few passes at a time.

Best wishes to all blues and good luck to David Moyes and the team,
Steve Rooney, Leicester Posted 05/10/2007 at 11:37:32

back Return to the Mail Bag

Comments

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer

T Knowles
1 Posted 05/10/2007 at 15:03:39

Loved the Rat’s other pronunications ’Jag-jelka’ and ’Ama-chobey’. Personally I think he is over critical of the club when he commentates. He has, after all, not got the best football management records.
I do think that Channel 5’s coverage has been spot on though.

Martin Wallace
2 Posted 05/10/2007 at 15:10:33

The Rat did seem a little keen to praise the ’Metal-arses’ attacks and you could of been forgiven for not realising that he had ever had anything to do with Everton such was his lack of warmth towards the blues.

At one point I could have swore he called Vic "Anchovie".

Andy Hudson
3 Posted 05/10/2007 at 15:15:52

Martin i agree he did call him ’Victor Anchovy’ Hillarious!!!!

Tim Lowe
4 Posted 05/10/2007 at 15:30:48

Channel 5’s coverage is so bad its good. Hope they keep ratcliffe for the group stages as his hilarious mis-pronunciations will at least provide some entertainment for the dross football we are likely to have to put up with.

Full credit to the boys in particular big vic and lescott who is playing out of his skin at the moment. COYB!!!!

Steve L
5 Posted 05/10/2007 at 15:49:20

And the commentator seemed to refer to Anichebe as Yakubu even after Yakubu had gone off. I might be mistaken but I’m sure he did.

If it had been scripted an easy 3 or 4 nil win would have been my script. Shreded nerves, just part of being an Evertonian

Anto Doran
6 Posted 05/10/2007 at 16:00:52

lol at least there is a channel willing to show the rubbish football they we play like last night game

Colin Wilkes
7 Posted 05/10/2007 at 16:26:02

Steve think it may have been that Yakobia player for them, Kev callled him yakubu a couple of times. I am sure he said David Moyles at one point too. At 2-1 down he is suggesting we bring on Carsley to change the game. Not hard to see why his managerial carreer was a disaster.
Very amusing though.

Chris Whiteside
8 Posted 05/10/2007 at 16:56:18

I think i remember noticing the commentators talking about our right back "gary" neville...as they said once or twice

Edward Ivers
9 Posted 05/10/2007 at 16:23:26

LETS TRY AGAIN. yes lets nights game. well more relieved than happy. lets talk shop. fifth in the league, two awkward european fixtures sorted, into the group stages of the uefa cup and a winnable last 16 game in the league cup. not bad for a "small club" in early october. and with regard to hijo de puta benitez himself and his band of unwashed, illiterate yokels i hope they enjoy their wooden spoon in the champions league group stages. you can stick your istanbul up your asses soon enough. enough of that shite lets concentrate on this club going places even after a steady if unspectacular performance in ukraine or "metalist city" if you saw it on channel five last night. man of the match for me was pienaar with anichebe a close second. couldnt really fault hibbert coming on with two minutes left. maybe its a contingency by moyes to stop him being slated for dire performances. In any event im think last night they all pulled their weight, and as Big Nev said after the cup win at the old wembley in 95 it shows just what a good club we are (or could become) . Also good to see Big Joe royle in attendance with wee pat nevin with that midly annoying consummate knobhead murray. also rats on commentary gave some added relief. I hope we can go up to tyneside this weekend and give the uneducated skunks a sound beating (a 1-0 win would be enough). Hopefully with the european win spirits will be raised and we can carry it into our league programme. The aforementioned league cup tie at old rivals luton looks academic so into the last eight and we can all dream. Finally dont bother trying to get a match report on Bluekipper. Apparently all and sundry have gone out to the game so no report is avaliable. Seeing as i watched the whole game live last night (mcfadden goal apart) its not that big a problem. Lets get behind the boys for the uefa cup group stages where we can really do some damage. Might even be a fixture against some shite quite local as they seem to be in danger of an early elimination from their champions league phase. Shame....

Martin Downey
10 Posted 05/10/2007 at 17:46:03

I have to agree, Rats’ contributrions to the commentary were at times hilarious, though they came in the heat of battle, and it’s only now I can laugh at them. He did have a point about Carsley though. Let’s be honest, they were tearing us to shreds in the middle of the park and seemed to be sauntering through for shots on goal almost unopposed - their second goal for instance. At the time I felt we needed somebody to get a grip of things in midfield and Carsely was the only payer on the bench who could have done that. Sadly, Jags was dreadful and seemed to want to get rid of the ball as soon as he got it. But, thankfully, Big Vic’s introduction turned out to be an inspired piece of management by DM. When we went all defensive for the last ten minutes or so I feared the worst and was cursing the manager for such a negative approach when another goal would have killed the tie! But it worked out well and Anichebe showed tremendous composure for such a young lad with the winner. All in all we were a bit lucky, but who cares?. I’m still pinching myself - we’ve won away from home in Europe against a decent side having come from behind twice!!!!! Really looking forward to the next 4 European games. COYB!

mick the blue
11 Posted 05/10/2007 at 20:51:04

Victor Anchovie was a cracker from rats.The best bunking off school excuse would be "suffering from nervous exhaustion". It worked for me today anyway.

guy pierce
12 Posted 05/10/2007 at 21:03:44

OK, it wasn’t great to watch but the opening round against UCD in the Cup-Winners winning run would have brought a few howls of criticism, too. ’HK clueless.. where are the goals coming from, blah di blah... ’ Sometimes you have to win ugly - and it’s about time we had some luck in Europe.