Fan Report: Everton 0-1 BATE Borisov

When David Moyes announced the team to play BATE a day before kick-off, the pre match reports I read the following day were all ostensibly saying the same thing; we are playing a bunch of kids against BATE, there will be ten people at the match, their will be very little atmosphere and it will be educational. Educational I agree with, but ten people and no atmosphere is something I don’t ascribe to. I enjoy watching the “kids” play; it reminds of when Everton won their final Champions League group match…on my Football Manager 2010. I had heard of Agard and the Mustard Man, Duffy and Rodwell, Osman and Yakubu. Nash I knew because he never plays, and of course Hibbert because he epitomises the wonderful spirit of Everton Football Club; Akpan, Foreshaw, Craig were names that were new to me. The match was more or less of little consequence in the bigger scheme of things, but there were big plus points, in my opinion. Of course, as is our want, with eight minutes on the clock off hobbles Jack the Lad [what, an injury to and Everton player, which almost never happens] and I wanted to cry; get well soon Lad, we need you.

We lost the match 1-0 apparently, but the plus points were many; Tony marshalling the defence well, Coleman and Duffy looking reasonably comfortable at the back and going forward and Agard looking lively up front; Carlo looked quietly confident and definitely announced to his defence who the boss was. Jack’s replacement was a young lad called Hope, and to be honest, this lad gave me a bit of hope; seriously. Quick, not afraid to put his foot into the tackle, good distribution skills and very willing to track back and cover, I really liked him; a central midfielder with promise. 

Agard up front was a handful throughout the match. OK, so he took a shot when the Yak was standing waiting for a pass in front of the goal, and he miscontrolled when he should have equalised, but he ran the whole night. He harassed their back four, he showed skill and pace at times, he caused some concern with that pace; a central midfielder and a centre forward with pace; what next I ask you! 

Then of course there was Duffy; man this boy is promising. He has pace, he has strength, he has good positional skill [that clearance off the goal line with Carlo beaten] and he lasted the whole match no problem. Ok, so he deflected the ball past Carlo for the goal, so what! I thought he was really good, one for the future. I would actually put him in against Birmingham on Sunday if Distin is still injured; I seriously think he will be a better option than Neil, as I think Neil is a bit too slow to be a centre back. Alongside Johnny, Duffy will learn and he will be ace; but that’s just my opinion, which I am sure Moysie will not share. If he does not want to do that, then put Tony alongside Johnny and start the Mustard Man at right back; cmon Davy boy, be adventurous.

We look forward to welcoming that man Lee and his high riding Birmingham side back to Goodison on Sunday; strictly on current form and log position, they have to be the favourites to roll us over. However, if David decides to be adventurous [play two up front and thrown in a proper centre back [Duffy] instead of a right back trying to play centre back] and Coleman to start as well bombing down the right, Baines down the left, Leon in the centre with Fellaini, we could roll THEM over. Cmon Davey surprise us with your team selection!
By Hadley Lakay