This season had been going so well despite the odds, but I can’t have been alone in thinking that maybe Arteta’s injury was just one too far? However, we somehow managed to dig deep enough today to put aside a dour first half performance which saw us go a goal behind, and grab that ticket to Wembley with both hands and refuse to let it go.
The first half of today’s match was truly awful from an Everton point of view. We were sluggish and slow to react in midfield when the opposition got the ball. The defence resorted to hoofball from the off, which Cahill and Fellaini could get no joy from that whatsoever, and Boro seemed to always pick up the second ball. The only bright spot was Baines and Pienaar up the left hand side of the pitch, but more worrying than our ineffectual attacking was the way that Boro seemed to cut through our defence with ease several times. It could have been much worse than just a single goal down by half time.
Whatever Moyes and Round said to the boys at half time, along with Saha replacing Rodwell, seemed to have an instant impact as Everton looked much the brighter team from the second half kick off. Although Boro looked determined to carry on attacking, it took just a few minutes until we were level, with a very good hanging cross in by Cahill meeting the afro of Fellaini and looping over the stranded Boro keeper Brad Jones. Cue Goodison erupting as we could all sense a change in the air. That sense was compounded just 5 or so minutes later as this time Pienaar provided an excellent cross for the unmarked Saha to head home and Goodison continued to celebrate.
The mood was tempered somewhat by the realisation that there was over half an hour of the match still to play and Boro were pretty quick on the break. The men in red threw what they had at us, but the defence was resolute, as it had to be. Both teams had chances in the remainder of the game, the brilliant Baines free kick that smacked the crossbar, the Saha sitter where he had all the time in the world to line up his shot into a gaping goal and launched it over the bar, then at the other end the free kick that Howard didn’t deal with in the dying moments of the match. But we held on and we’re off to Wembley for the first time in way too long!
It isn’t a cup final (yet) but it is as close as we’ve been in a while and we’re going to enjoy it. It doesn’t matter who our opponents are (and yes, it is Man Utd) because anything can happen in a cup game and we’ve got nothing to lose. It is time for this Everton team (what we have left of it) to stand up and be counted. We’re on the march with Moysey’s army….!
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