You can only beat who you have in front of you but the scoreline was flattering. Don't think Fiorentina will lie down as much as Brann did tonight so we need to be careful.

I thought Pienaar and Johnson looked really good. Even Fernandes played ok but still needs to do a lot more to earn that contract.

I just checked the match reports on the website for the season so far. By my count, in all competitions, including tonight, Yakubu is now on 15 goals. That's certainly money's worth for me.

Andy Johnson, much maligned to date, is on 8 goals for all competitions. Not bad for a fella who's been in and out of the first team for various reasons. Last season he was top dog and only managed 12.

Please I'm dying to see the goals... does anyone know of any links?

So 6-1. I would like to see this team go on and show the rest of the Premier League that they are the 4th best team in the league. Not just on merit, but more than that.

Credit must be given to the opposition tonight, they are a good side, and they would have turned us over 2-3 years ago. Tonight we played excellent. We were a little tentative in the first half, but most teams including England always struggle when they know the first goal will signal the avalanche.

My ratings:

Howard - Unlucky for the goal, but strong otherwise.

Neville, Lescott, Jags and Valente. Solid in defence, Especially Jags. Few loose passes from Valente, but that must be a Portugese thing which I will get to later.

Arteta, still needs to step it up, but only because I think he is in the top 10 in the world - and at the moment he is not fulfilling his very high standards. Still quality though.

Piennar, quiet first half, but due largely to the lack of play down the left side. Came into it more in the second half and unlucky not to score.

Cahill, better performance for me, in a role which I think is alien to him. He played well and is starting to show his ability in that 4 man midfield. Good flick for Yak's first goal.

Carsley, saw tonight why people value him so much. I also saw a couple of incidents where he is showing his age and lack of quality to step up to a top 4 player.

AJ, Man of the match, by a long chalk. Actually finally played the game I have been waiting to see from him since we signed him. Used his pace to get behind defenders central to the goal, and not down those damn channels. Unlucky not to get three, but fuck me - what a prospect he and Yak are.

Yak, does nothing but score goals usually. The odd pass here and there, gets involved with Arteta trickery, and for me has paid back his transfer fee already.

Fernandes, a few loose passes, but I just think he is just getting used to our game, and I would prefer to see this flower blossom at Goodison rather than anywhere else. He has ability, he has desire. He does get back and tackle, and he has ambition to play a killer pass. No doubt he will be the one who gets picked on, but I believe he will be quality.

Hibbert, great tackles. A few times he miscontrolled the ball, and then he did the ultimate "for fuck's sake Hibbo" moment - beats a player all ends up and then misplaces a pass.

Anichebe, one of them - should have passed instead of shooting. But if they go in, its like get in son. But, still a problem, and a wonderful option to bring on.

In summary, I am over the moon. Delighted, enthralled, excited, little drunk, but finally - after 20 years in the wilderness, we are back amongst the European quality that we left behind the ECWC 85. Hopefully we can take the step we once took in 86 and get to take on the cream of Europe.

Oh and a special mention goes out to Ratters for finally getting Jagielka's name right, although he did fuck it up in the last 5 with another of the infamous Jadgelka's.

Berry - go to http://evertonvideo.blogspot.com/ for the goals! COYB!

Try efc1878.blogspot.com

Berry

Get your money out and stop being a tight arse, support the club - subcribe to Evertontv. £40 well spent

Adam,

Thanks, made my day.

They may be only Norwegian and we definitely took advantage of their lack of fitness at the end, but god that was good.

Around September time I posted a message on here to say that we were serious contenders in this competition and got slated by this one guy who said we stood no chance in a competition that had Bayern Munich, Ajax, Galatasaray and Athletico Madrid. Well if you are reading my friend, only one of those teams are left.

Tell me ma me ma, we I won’t be home for tea, we’re going to Man City

What a result and what a performance! I’m just wondering why we didn’t see Baines???

Fantastic win and thnks for the link Adam for the link bring on those italian assholes btw wat did ppl think of that moen guy i think hes was alrite in a pretty lacklustre team

Don’t know about ’saying goodbye to the lonely striker’, when we had that great run earlier in the season if I remember most of those good performances were with one striker. In the league where your 5 foot-odd midfielders are getting instantly closed down by two 6 foot-odd 14 stoners the five men in the middle creates more short passing options and is a more flexible system as well. Moyes went 4-4-2 tonight to keep the pressure off the back four with us being in front and with European teams generally being more measured and less quick to fly in as soon as the opposition gets the ball. That’s why he was able to play Neville and Fernandes in the middle in the 2nd half, you couldn’t do that in the league (at the moment).

The only thing that was a bit of a shame was that Anichebe didn’t get one, that would’ve been great for the lad to carry on his European scoring run... but lets not get greedy eh!

Maybe he’s saving one for the final....

Thankyou gentlemen, im an aussie and although we have excellent coverage of all EPL games our uefa cup coverage is limited. Maybe a hundred bucks for evertontv to watch a couple extra games a year isnt really that worth it...

Was desperate for AJ to get on the scoresheet last night for both his own good and the sake of the detractors of late. Well done AJ, another excellent hard working display and a couple of very well taken goals (and fair play to their keeper for deflecting the other shot onto the post). Also great to see Pienaar back. I think he’s more influential than Arteta right now and that’s praise for him, not a critisicm of wonderful Mikel.

Nick Toye, good summary of players mate, agree with most of what you said apart from Cars & Hibbo but one question in relation to this statement..

"show the rest of the Premier League that they are the 4th best team in the league. Not just on merit, but more than that. "

How can you show your the best on more than merit?? Done get it, but I may be hungover or you may have been pished when you typed it??

Still made up with game last night, thier fans were banana’s but with the proce of our ale they must of had a field day!!! Imagine they found slaters!!! ha ha

Well done lads - I generally agree with Nick’s assessment, with just a few minor observations.

I think Brann harried us well in the first half hour and we were lucky with the Carsley incident and that Howard close-range save, but I think we made a controlled start which we gradually built upon. The goals freed us up nicely and it was a thoroughly good game thereafter.

I don’t think anyone put in a bad performance. We looked solid at the back and inventive in midfield as the game progressed. Disappointed that Howard was caught flat-footed by the free-kick (he’s a good keeper but he is prone to the odd lapse at times). I actually thought Peanuts was a big difference for us and I’m surprised he didn’t get as much praise from others. He always kept the left-side ticking over, his work-rate (coming back from injury) was great, and he was instrumental in a number of the goal build-ups (it’s a no-brainer that DM needs to sign him on a long contract in the summer). Arteta and Cahill both contributed, although I still think both can step it up a notch still (Fernandes was better but needs to step up a couple of notches - hopefully he will, because he might be our long-term replacement for Carsley, if the old warehorse starts to falter next season). I was chuffed by Yak’s goals. As someone who remembers how good Duncan McKenzie was for us (despite not having the Gordon Lee work ethic) I have no issue with a goal scorer being there to pop them in, and he’s a natural. His second goal was a cracker, and I think he puts himself around the outside of the box much better than when he first came. However, man of the match was without doubt AJ. In a previous forum thread his future potential in the club was questioned. I remember saying at the time we was only a ’hairs-breadth’ away from getting back on song, and that performance was spot on. He ran his heart out as usual, but got better service and ran more centrally, and his two goals were fantastic (almost got a superb hat-trick too!)

I know it’s only a Norwegian team we played in their pre-season period, but I thought we dealt with them professionally, and while Monday night and then our trip to Italy will test us to the limit, we at least go into the next few weeks with real confidence (something we haven’t often had the last few years).

What I do realise is that we now have a superb bench of class players and my only fear is that a few may get restless unless DM can give them games from time to time. If you think that we didn’t use Osman, Baines, Vaughan, Yobo or Gravesen last night, DM will do well to keep them all sweet.

Finally, I’ve always been a fan of 4-4-2, even though against some teams 4-5-1 has been effective (it’s also been ineffective, such as against Chelski). I think AJ and the Yak have the potential to be a great big-small partnership based on yesterday’s performance, and then its how we use Tiny Tim as an attacking midfield (I think he can adapt to a 4-man midfield). If we go 4-5-1 then Yak has top get the nod, but if this is an AJ resurgence that we’ve been hoping for, it gives DM a lot of difficult choices as well.

Great game lads, but let’s make sure we follow through at Eastlands on Monday! COYBs

Pete, it’s a shame we didn’t ditch the ’scraps’ policy prior to the Carling Cup second leg. Was about to write a post entitled ’Moyes finest hour’ as last night, particularly the latter part of the game was accomplished, classy, entertaining and just pure 4kin fantastic. Now if we can do the same against a better team...

Where are the Yak bashers now?

4-4-2 or 4-51. If we cam change things around and still be successful, surely that is a good thing.

FEED THE YAK & HE WILL SCORE............. WAT A PLAYER !!! QUALITY PLAYER !!!!! AMAZING !!!! LET IT CONTINUE AT MAN CITY! FEED THE YAK & HE WILL SCORE....

GREAT WIN. Thats what we can do when its not a FA/SKY big 4 Ref. lets take it on to City. The Shite where lucky the other night Rafa will be taking notes. Finally if you check Skysports.com Not a mention of us except to say we play Fiorentina. Who Gives a fuck! we don't need Sky or Fleet Street. COYB !!!!

Does anyone know where I can view the highlights of last nights game? I was unable to watch the game and Evertontv for some reason does not work on my laptop. Any assistance would be gratefully accepted!

Anyone got a link to the goals?

John Lloyd they did find the local alehouses and were tipping the barmaids twenty pound notes as our ale is that much cheaper. A few memories of their lot too, the them tune to the Banana Splits in Norwegian was classic and those two blonde honeys that appeared on the big screen when Arteta scored in their end, yummy

Go here: http://www.goalcentre.com/everton-vs-sk-brann-highlights/