Dewch Laen Everton! / Auf gehts Everton!

Everton 2 - 0 Norwich City

Well it was nice to stop the rut against Norwich City… one of the worst teams to grace the Premier League over the last few years. Having drawn four and lost one of our last five fixtures with the Canarie, I was fairly convinced another disappointing draw was on the horizon as I set off to Goodison Park, though at full time, and despite a slightly nervy last 20 minutes, Everton ran out comfortable winners with two excellent goals separating the teams.

I set off pretty early and was outside Goodison Park at about 12:30pm. It’s nice getting there early and seeing some of the goings on around the ground as they prepare for kick off. The ‘Fanzone’ now has a FIFA ’14 stand set up for kids to try their hand at the popular video game. You see corporate gentlemen in suits entering the lounge and some of the assembled media arriving and setting up for the afternoon.

I was there early to see some of the memorabilia provided by the EFC Heritage Society. Every home game, they have the upstairs of St Luke’s Church decked out with all sorts of memorabilia including matchday programmes from yesteryear, old newspaper cuttings, flags, old tickets stubs and plenty more. Entry is free and it's certainly worthwhile visiting if you have a spare 10 minutes on match day. A section is also included for the visiting team.

It was nice to browse around before making my way to the pub which was fairly empty when I arrived, though soon packed out. Katja, my better half, joined me. She is German and brought with her two German Evertonians from work. Gaz soon followed. Gaz is Welsh and brought with him a group of Welsh Evertonians, so we had conversations flowing in German and in at times barely detectable Welsh accents… Gary was very bemused by it all when he arrived. It as good fun in the pub, everyone in good spirits and everyone, bar myself, very confident of a home win for the Blues.

There were quite a few changes to the team which crushed QPR in the FA Cup last weekend. Howard and Baines both slotted back into their regular positions whilst Jagielka was the surprise inclusion into the backline replacing the presumably injured Alcaraz. Kevin Mirallas and Steven Pienaar both returned to the team to replace the injured Ross Barkley and Stephen Naismith whilst Lukaku regained his place in attack, replacing the seemingly departing Nikica Jelavic.The substitutes bench perhaps demonstrated our pressing needs for reinforcements with Magaye Gueye and Apostolos Vellios joining Robles, Hibbert, Heitinga, Oviedo and Naismith on the substitutes bench.

Norwich City had ex-Everton keeper John Ruddy between the sticks, Leroy Fer (who almost signed for Everton 12 months ago) in midfield, and their record signing, the fantastically named Robin van Wolfswinkel (whose only league goal so far is against Everton) in attack. We took our seats to find a remarkably tall gentleman directly in front of Gary, much to his dismay. You felt a bit sorry for the bloke as he was clearly quite conscious of it… there’s nothing you can do about your height.

If our substitutes bench indicated a pressing need for more reinforcements, then it was a great surprise to see Everton had wrapped up the deal to bring Aiden McGeady to the club, the Ireland international signing for the club on a 4½-year deal. Aiden was introduced to the Goodison crowd prior to kick-off. He’s always looked a good player and could be a great addition to the squad. This brings our contingent of Irish internationals in our squad to four — even five if you count our Under-21 international Shane Duffy, currently on loan at Yeovil Town.

Everton attacked towards the Park End in the first half and, despite a fairly uncomfortable first few minutes, were soon in control of the game and creating opportunities against, barring Fulham, the leakiest defence in the league… Lukaku missing a gilt-edged opportunity to put us ahead when he headed his fellow Belgian Kevin Mirallas's pinpoint centre over the crossbar. It didn’t take long for us to take the lead however when a Gareth Barry piledriver gave us the advantage when he smashed home from about 20 yards out. I love goals like that – unstoppable drives from distance. That was Barry’s 50th club goal and what a way to score it.

Everton put Norwich City under a lot of pressure for the remainder of the half and on another day could have been further ahead. Coleman blazed one over, somebody (I don’t know who) just about cleared his own crossbar in what would have been quite an own goal and Everton’s general play around the Norwich penalty area was very threatening. At the other end, Tim Howard tipped Robin van Wolfswinkel’s curling effort around the post in what was pretty much Norwich’s only opportunity in the first half. At the break, we lead 1-0.

Into the second period and Everton’s general dominance continued, a lot of pressure was applied but it took another piece of individual brilliance, this time from Kevin Mirallas, to give us a two-goal margin. Leighton Baines was felled about 25 yards from goal and Mirallas stepped up to take the free kick. You sort of had a feeling he’d score and the moment the ball left his boot you knew it was nestling into the corner of the net. Ruddy, if I’m being harsh, might have got across to it but nevertheless it was an excellent strike from the Belgian to put Everton 2-0 ahead. The crowd were now in great voice.

At 2-0, you felt the game could open up to become 3-, 4- or 5-0 as Everton continued to apply pressure. They seemed to be trying to create chances for Lukaku to put away and there was a lot of nice build-up play but with no further goals. Still, we looked comfortable enough.

I raised an eyebrow at a couple of substitutions with around 20 minutes still to play as Everton removed two of our most creative players for another centre-back (Heitinga) and perhaps a more disciplined midfielder (Naismith). Pienaar appeared to hobble off so that one seemed forced; I’m not sure about the Osman substitution... however, I don’t know if that was tactical or forced.

I thought we seemed to be shutting up shop a bit too soon... and so it proved as Norwich began to create opportunities in the final 20 minutes. We saw it out and thus it mattered not. Howard only really had the one decent save to make and Robin van Wolfswinkel did miss one reasonable chance so it perhaps wasn’t as dramatic as I’m making out but, had they have gotten one back, we may have struggled with less attacking options on the bench.

So that was that. Despite a late flurry from Norwich it was quite a convincing win and it's nice to arrest the rut against Norwich City. We’ve moved up to 4th position and will stay there if Stoke can avoid defeat against Liverpool. If we can stay within three points of Liverpool (whether that be above or below them) it should make for compulsive viewing in the Merseyside derby on Tuesday 28 January.

Just a sidenote to that – boy, would I fancy our chances of beating Liverpool under the floodlights of Goodison Park rather than the floodlights of Anfield. You have to go all the way back to Sunday 22 December 2002 for the last time we played the first Merseyside derby of a season at Anfield rather than Goodison Park. I wonder why that is? It shouldn’t matter of course as you have to play everyone twice of course anyway, I just think it could make quite a difference to the tail end of the season and could give us a real advantage as we hit the run-in.

Also, this will be the third evening fixture in the Premier League at Anfield during this period with just the one played out in the evening at Goodison Park. We all know what a difference this can make at Goodison Park. Remember Dan Gosling in 2009 anyone?

I suppose there always seems to be something up against us – somehow you wouldn’t have it any other way. Come On Everton! We can do it. Or as my Welsh friends say – Dewch Laen Everton. Or as the German’s put it – Auf gehts Everton!

This is our year!

Player Ratings:

Howard: I’ve certainly seen many a game when he’s been more underworked. He did well. His distribution has improved that immeasurably from last season. At one point he punted aimlessly upfield and I was shocked. Last season, that tended to be the norm. 8

Baines: A good display roaming forward. Won the free kick that lead to our second goal. At his consistent best. 8

Jagielka: Good, both with the ball and in the tackle. Helped Stones through the game also. 7

Stones: A few ropey moments but did very well. I like the way he looks to pick a pass and he is very composed on the ball for a young player. His yellow card was harsh in the extreme. Another good display and he’s learning his game very well. Is it too early to say he’s a potential future England centre-back? Height, reading of play, composure and good distribution – he certainly has the attributes. I’m yet to see him get tested for pace so that’s difficult to judge but he looks a great player in the making and perhaps we needn’t worry about a long-term replacement for Distin quite as much as I thought we had to. 7

Coleman: He got beaten once or twice in defence but continued to gallop forward to good effect in attack. Not a bad afternoon’s work. Is it fair to say he’s the best right back in the league at the moment? He’s got to be right up there. 7

Barry: An excellent display and capped off with a great goal. Should he be in the England squad? If Michael Carrick is fit I think he’s about the best defensive midfielder England have but is Roy Hodgson serious about putting Phil Jones in as the replacement if Carrick is unavailable? Barry would be a better choice surely. 8

McCarthy: My Man of the Match. Covered a great deal of ground in the middle. He has a lot of talent and a lot of attributes. He rarely has a bad game and I can only see him improving. Proving to be an inspired signing and I certainly had my doubts. 8

Pienaar: At times excellent though a bit in and out of the game I thought before he hobbled off. Will be interesting to see if McGeady will replace he or Mirallas in the team when he settles in. 6

Mirallas: Had a very good game, one of few this season. Scored an excellent free kick and was busy and industrious throughout. With Barkley probably out for a while with his broken metatarsal, he will be required to chip in more from a creative viewpoint over the coming weeks, so I hope he can keep this up. 8

Osman: Showed flashes of excellence and perhaps needed to show more of that. He was always a presence though and did help pressing the ball and forcing Norwich into mistakes in their own half. 6

Lukaku: His all round play is good but you feel he needs to get back in the goals and quite quickly. Just one goal in his last eight games now. With three away games coming up he’ll need to be at his best. Two of the three will be huge for him also – at the Hawthorns against his former club and then the Merseyside Derby of course. Another brace against the Reds will do. 6

Substitutes:

Heitinga: Slotted into a three man defence and did OK. Probably his Goodison Park swan song as he did his big farewell at the end again. Good to see he’s still there and can be relied on if called upon though…it might not be the end for him at Everton just yet. 6

Naismith: Did OK. Usual Naismith – good commitment and discipline, albeit with nothing spectacular. 6

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