The penultimate home game of the season was a good chance to put some pressure on Aston Villa for 5th place in the league and ensure our momentum rumbled on as we head for the fast approaching Wembley date. Sadly it seemed that any kind of footballing momentum for either team was not on the agenda of a certain Mr Lee Mason, today’s referee. In one of the most stop/start games of football ever seen, Mason seemed to blow up for an “infringement” literally every 2 minutes throughout. I use the word “infringement” loosely, because even without those blue-tinted-specs, I believe that many of the free kicks given (mostly to Spurs) were soft to say the least. For a game which had no really big decisions for the ref to make, he still managed to annoy the Goodison crowd by blowing up virtually every time one of our players won the ball, yet ignored numerous holding, shirt tugging, pushing, high footed incidents when a Spurs player was the instigator. He left the pitch at half and full time to well deserved boos.
So back to the football… and Everton struggled in the first half to keep Spurs at bay. Our midfield looked sluggish and sleepy and the defence had to work hard for their money today, but managed to hold the visitors at arms length and they didn’t trouble Tim Howard really. The last 10 minutes of the half, we started to impose ourselves a little on the game and Pienaar was again our creative hub, finding Jo in the area with an excellent pass a few minutes before the interval, but Jo’s shot was blocked and thus ended a disappointing first half.
After the break, Everton were much the brighter and nearly went ahead on 55 minutes with a Cahill shot from 20 yards out which curled a whisker wide of the right hand post after looking like it was in all the way with Gomes beaten. Everton played as well as the referee allowed us to, holding much more possession, using the brilliant Baines/Pienaar combo on the left, time and again to great effect, as well as Neville and Gosling working well on the right hand side, but all to often, the final ball in just wasn’t good enough and no one in blue was anywhere near getting on the end when it counted.
Because of the formation we played, Cahill was in a role that saw him more as a back up for Rodwell in front of the defence than anywhere near the front, and we certainly missed his tendency to get on the end of crosses, but he was simply needed elsewhere with Neville having to fill in at right back due to injuries. Everton stepped up a gear again in the final 20 minutes and although Gomes didn’t have to make any outstanding saves, Gosling’s drive hit the post and the Spurs keeper looked anything but comfortable, as was often the case throughout the 90 minutes, illustrated when he nearly dropped the ball in the box right at Jo’s feet rather than collecting a Baines cross easily as he should . Sadly we couldn’t take advantage and seemed a little tired every time the ball reached the final third. A game we should have won and a chance to overtake Villa gone begging.
5th is still a strong possibility because Villa were beaten and there is now just a point in it, with our much superior goal difference a bonus if it really does come down to the wire. Finishing strongly is something we have struggled to do in recent seasons as our much depleted squad feels the effects of a long season, but I have no doubt that the desire and will to win is there and we have enough skill and ablity in the players still standing to beat the teams we are yet to face. We do play some excellent passing and flowing football at times. Lets hope the referees in our remaining matches this season show a little more respect for the beautiful game and spend a little less time trying to make a name for themselves.
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Yawn
More Spurs players were booked than Everton players. So much for your biased claims of referee favouritism
The tackles we made which were blown up as fouls were numerous and nonsensical, yet certainly not yellow card offenses, or even mostly fouls in the first place. A high foot (which wasn’t that high, nor near anyone’s head) from Lescott was a foul, yet exactly the same thing from one of your players 5 minutes later wasn’t even blinked at by the ref. I didn’t use the word biased in my report – I think inconsistent is a more politically correct way to describe it.
You don’t have to use the word to be biased. Its the way you wrote ther piece.
With four regulars out and a new system. I thought Spurs did well despite the Ref. Both teams got what they deserved on the day.
If you are not biased, why didn’t you mention that Defoe’s shot after turning on a sixpence had Howard beaten. Let’s face it Everton were crap in the first half and Spurs were the same in the Second