Fan Report: Nobody Batted an Eyelid – Really?

“Somebody threw their arm up, but nobody batted an eyelid at it”, is what Alex McLeish said when asked about the Stephen Carr incident. Well, let me tell you, you little turd, the SOMEBODY who threw an arm up was your captain, and he did it to flick the ball off Louis Saha’s head with his hand in the penalty box. The reason that nobody “batted an eyelid” is that blind officials don’t normally bat their eyelids. I wonder what his comment was regarding Saha’s brilliant goal, incorrectly ruled out by a phantom offside decision; “Somebody put through a brilliant defence splitting pass, Saha finished magnificently but nobody batted an eyelid because the bloody awful assistant referee had raised his flag”…idiot!

However, despite the penalty that should have been and the goal that should have been, but wasn’t, we should have wrapped up this game before half time. In the first 20 minutes we were awesome; absolutely brilliant. Why you ask, two words…Leon Osman. David Moyes should make a rule that reads “when Leon Osman starts in a match for Everton FC, the only position I will ever play him is centre midfield”; Leon was magnificent; I lost count of the number of times I said “well played Leon” to myself [you can count the number of Everton supporters in Cape Town on your one finger], as I sat and watched almost mesmerised as we systematically took Birmingham apart. We scored a cracking goal thanks to a mazy run and bulletlike finish from Billy, as they heltered and skeltered to keep us from adding to our goal tally. Of course we did, but it was ruled out by the assistant; well done Sir! 

They scored against the run of play to equalise in the first half [The frizzy haired man lost Larsen as he made a late run into the penalty box], and we lost our stride momentarily, and they did pick up their level of play as the half came to a close. However in the second half, after ten minutes of parity, we started taking control of the game again, King Louis, Captain Timmy and Osman spurning chances coupled with last ditch defending keeping us from taking the lead. We continued to miss our chances, Timmy Howard displayed some fine handling in the deteriorating conditions to ensure there were no mishaps in our box, and Ossie and Pienaar continued to control the midfield. Louis and the Yak had chances as the second half ticked down, but Louis could not find his range and the Yak displayed a distinct lack of pace as he laboured after a through ball from Louis, that I daresay Vaughan would strolled onto and tucked away to give us the win. Then of course came the penalty that was not given… 

To end however, I have to make special mention of my Man of the Match. No, not Pienaar, or Osman, but Tony Hibbert; what, you say, are you on drugs…erm, actually, no. I thought Tony Hibbert was immense yesterday. He tackled [did you see that last ditch tackle in the box when the striker seemed certain to score or at least test Howard], he shackled McFadden on their left, he overlapped, he distributed, he crossed, he even strode forward once and I silently saying, cmon Hibbo, shoot; yes, can you believe it. Can this be the same Tony Hibbert of games gone by?

Yes it is! This is just an opinion, but when Tony Hibbert has a strong Right Mid playing in front of him, he gains the confidence to go forward, make overlapping runs because he knows that the right mid will cover his position and will retain possession of the football. He has that confidence in Pienaar and Billy; unfortunately he does not have that confidence in Ossie. No fault of Ossie, but when Leon is forced to play right mid [out of his comfort zone] his lack of confidence on filters into the right back’s play, and 90 percent of the time, that is Mr Hibbert. When he has a natural right mid playing in front of him, the confidence returns. Well played yesterday Tony, you were my man of the match.    

By Hadley Lakay