Everton 7 (Yes, SEVEN!!) Sunderland 1
26 November 2007
Having watched the Newcastle debacle, I headed up to my seat at Goodison to watch the second part of the North-East v Merseyside double bill.
Needless to say, the Sunderland fans were cock-a-hoop after the mauling of their "neighbours" and were in great voice in support of their team.
It all started well enough until the twelfth minute when a hefty punt from the back was missed by McShane, then missed by Higginbotham who tried to recover but Yakubu had enough strength to hold him off and knock the ball into the ground and very fortunately up and over the stranded Gordon.
The ultra-talented Arteta was now in full flow and giving Ian Harte a torrid time, leaving him dead and buried constantly, culminating in a tremendous flick to Neville whose cross was confidently knocked home by the ever-dangerous Cahill.I have to admit that i have been known to criticise Everton for their long ball game but today they mixed it up well and a great intercangr between Valente and Pienaar resulted in the latter scoring a third.
Their was a vague moment of hope when Dwight Yorke smacked home from a Jones lay back right on half time and, in fairness, Sunderland had a real go at the start of the second half and, had they scored it could have been so different.....but, they didn't!!Another massive long ball found McShane again on his own and Cahill showed great skill and composure to control and net. This was followed by a bad miss from Chopra who stabbed wide in front of an open goal. Oh dear!
Cue more pressure from Everton and it was the much improved Yakubu who netted his second on the turn, again being given too much space.
Could it possibly get any worse? The unfortunate answer is, "Yes".
Yet another hump up the pitch, yet again poor positioning at the back and this time it is Johnson's turn to outpace the hapless McShane to neatly flick home.
And there's more because Everton's final goal summed the day up. Osman picked the ball up on the half-way line, ran unchallenged to the 18 yard line, goes past a pathetic attempt at a tackle by Higginbotham and strokes the ball home. Credit to the boy but, dear me, this has to be cut out.
What a weekend for the North-East and what a day for Roy Keane. There is a massive gap in The Premier League between the top four and the rest but, on this performance, there is a massive gap between the top ten and the rest!
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