From My Seat: Man Utd (H)

"A pretty straight-forward victory that in some ways reminded me of the Ali rope-a-dope fights. We sucked them in, saw them off and hit them hard."

Sunday soon came around after Wednesday night, and playing Man Utd at home certainly concentrated minds. The result v Palace was put down to manager error and the team, as relayed by social media, seemed to suggest lessons had been learned. All around L4, Blue was the colour and Moyes chants were the sound.

Our Room of Nonsense soon filled to overflowing as the mood reflected the atmosphere every time we entertain the Mancs – but this time with the added edge of our falling out with one David Moyes – and that edge was cutting to say the least. Even before entering the ground, I heard a new one to me. It went along the lines of "Stuck with Moyes, Man Utd, Stuck with Moyes, playing football in a negative way."

Every now and then we pick up little gems in our very own Theatre of Dreams and the fella who is mates with one of our main physios said all the lads were fit and raring to go and very upbeat. Scepticism is also our middle name after years of tips and tall tales but today the display certainly backed his statement up. It was bedlam as fans left for the ground and the walk-up was a treat for those of a musical disposition. Goodison Road was chocca and you could not tell who was queuing at outlets and who was making their way to turnstiles. Groups of fans marched singing anti-Moyes songs whilst heading for the Street End. It reminded me of how this club really need some success so that again we can see these scenes as common place as we did in those glorious sixties and eighties.

Into the ground and, from the first bar of Z-Cars, the ‘Goodison Roar’ was heard and set the scene for the rest of the afternoon. Don’t know who won the toss but we were attacking the Park End. The way Man Utd started belied the fact that, by the end, the Blues would have a relatively easy win to celebrate, and Moyes’s rough ride from the off would get no better as soon it became clear Martinez had a game plan that could have been garnered from some of our defeats rather than successes as we were happy to allow Man Utd the ball – but only up to a point –and then we funnelled, pounced and broke up their play and countered quickly.

From the antics of Moyes and Neville, from time to time racing out to bawl instructions from the technical area, they too had noticed. Martinez meanwhile ignored such antics and stood imperious, resplendent in brown shoes as overseer in chief, as his charges, although behind on possession, were by far the more dangerous side; this was demonstrated when a Lukaku knockdown found the ever willing Naismith with the whole goal to shoot at but he rather hurried the shot and the ball found Row N in the Park End.

It was a great atmosphere but only to a point as the fans, although boisterous and loud, seemed to be waiting for us to get our noses in front before really letting rip. We came close when a Naismith shot hit a Man Utd defender in the box and an appeal from our players and an almighty ‘Hand-Ball!!!’ cry from the terraces left our Ref Clattenberg to wave such appeals away.

As the half-hour mark approached, the possession and pretty play from Man Utd was easy on the eye until 20 yards from goal, then our Rottweiler middle line and defenders rendered them impotent. Then, on the half hour, another good joined-up break got Lukaku in and his goal-bound shot was clearly handled; even as reluctant as all refs are in giving pens, Clattenberg really had no choice. Up stepped Baines and all the delaying tactics were redundant as our ace penalty taker strode forth, waited for the keeper to guess and go, and hit it down the middle. 1-0, thank you very much, and the Blue army celebrated in some style all around the ground.

Fifteen minutes to the break and the last thing we wanted was to leak one and bring them back into the game. It could be argued that Man Utd went for us and players had to be vigilant and fans patient as we mopped up their efforts and continued to break at pace to unsettle their rearguard. Although they attacked, I always felt we were in control of that and indeed welcomed them coming forward so that we could hit hard and fast the other way.

From such a scenario, just two minutes shy of the break, the ever dangerous Coleman was involved as he sped past defenders, found Mirallas who was also having a good game and he cut in from the right and hit one just inside the far post leaving De Gea beaten. The joy was unbridled and Moyes was not seen until the half time whistle went.

Half-time and everyone upbeat yet, in many a conversation, the match v Palace was brought up in a sort of ‘What If’ way...

The players appeared for the second half along with the fourth official with his electronic board to announce that Distin had been replaced by Alcaraz. Many a ‘Phew’ was heard as Distin had played well, and his pace was always welcome as well as Man Utd still had the speedy Welbeck to enter the fray, if they so wished. We need not have worried as we seemed to sense we had the measure of the team of ‘The Chosen One’ as long as we stayed focused. To this end, many a player shone, and none more than McCarthy with his non-stop running and aggressive fights for the ball, one of which saw the ‘Croxteth Kid’ give him a kick that needed lengthy attention; no free kick though, so on we went with Coleman scaring the hell out of them with his pacey bursts and link-ups with Mirallas who was definitely having one of his very good games.

Such was the occasion, the time was racing by, and all looking good for the Blues with Howard rarely troubled, if at all... the swift breaks looking goal-worthy with every sortie forward. Naismith almost made it a perfect 4-0 when first from a great run from Coleman and an intelligent cross from Mirallas saw him fire over as he raced in. Then, not long after, he made room for himself and from the edge of the box curled one to the far post with pace that De Gea did well to push for a corner from a fine diving save.

On 70 minutes, Barkley, who had got through a tremendous amount of work without being eye-catching but invaluable to the team, was replaced by Osman. He gave us an injection of craft and guile and experience yet it was he who gave the underworked Howard a job to do late on when his pass back to Baines was woefully short, a bit like that cock-up with Howard that saw Sunderland beat us on Boxing day. Him conceding possession saw Rooney played in and Howard did well to react with speed and block at Rooney’s feet and away for a corner which was wasted.

We cheered that. In fact, we would cheer anything at that moment. That was the end of their pathetic efforts for today and the clock ticked down and on to the 90; then 4 more were added. More of the same and we ended the match in cruise control. It may well be recorded that Man Utd had the lion’s share of possession but it was Everton who had the tactics and the will to see them through that led to a pretty straight-forward victory that, in some ways, reminded me of the Ali rope-a-dope fights. We sucked them in, saw them off and hit them hard.

Beating Man Utd has happened before, accompanied with some "backs to the walls" and "a little luck" descriptions but this season beating them home and away and to nil (Agg. Score 3-0) should fend off any hard-luck stories from even the most biased of onlookers.

For those interested in such things, many an anthem was sung out, including: "You’re getting sacked in the morning" and all with venomous conviction. There was no need to sing "You’re not singing any more" to the Mancs as they had already left or were sulking.

MotM. – So many to choose but for me it was McCarthy, only just, but I will stick with it.

The walk back for the inquest was all light-hearted and jolly yet a definite undercurrent of ‘That bloody Palace result’... but hey, we are still one point behind the Gunners and this is football, which is almost unpredictable, so you just never know and doesn’t that result today almost seal our passage to one Euro competition? Let’s just get as many points as we can and the league table will tell us how well we have done over 38 games.

This will be as good a season as we have had for many a year and should be celebrated as such. Yet, it could turn out to be a most disappointing one after threatening so much, so let’s hope for three more wins and then hope even harder — you never know.

Southampton next and, with all personnel fit, let’s hope our manager is as cute as he was today with the tactics.

UP THE BLUES

Reader Comments (25)

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

About these ads

---