Everton 0 Foxes 2
Match report by Graham Tracey
Our astonishing transformation from low confidence, leaky defending shadows of our former selves to ruthless winners continued on Bonfire Night at Goodison with a performance as good as the result.
With the World Cup looming, Tielemans and Maddison were to the fore as our last 7 games have now produced 13 points and only 3 goals conceded, compared to 1 point and 22 goals against in the first 7 matches. Never being a ‘Rodgers Out’ merchant, I am delighted that if we get a good result at West Ham we can relax for a few weeks.
A couple of wider points first. Sky scheduling a game on Bonfire Night evening shows no regard for fans with children who don’t follow football. Everton is normally a game I’d go to in person, but family comes first and so I tried to avoid checking my phone too often at a firework display before watching the game on playback later.
Secondly, I don’t think I’m alone in lacking enthusiasm for the winter world cup, even though (despite being club first, country second) still being very behind England at tournaments. The risk of the slightest knock ruling out players next weekend is unfair, let alone the injustices of Qatar in general. The break in the narrative of the season is annoying to say the least.
Back to the action, and with Evans still unfit and Ndidi remaining on the bench, the only change saw the rotation of Daka in for Vardy. A massive plus about this season has been how Daka, Ward, and to a lesser extent Soumare have stepped up to the plate.
Daka starting ahead of Vardy seems the right call at present, and the Zambian was heavily involved in early action. While he sometimes snatched early at his shots, he was always in good positions for Madders in particular to find him.
Despite our set piece improvements, there are still some rushes of blood to the head, and Amartey’s dangerous pass out to Soumare led to an opening for the impressive Iwobi which he fired narrowly wide. With our Bogeyman Richarlison now no longer with the Toffees, Everton were blunter than usual. Their best opportunities came from a header well saved by Ward in the first half, with the Welshman doing his own world cup hopes no harm with a 5th clean sheet and racing out to block Calvert-Lewin after the break.
We created many more chances than we would in a usual home game, but looked set to go into half-time goalless until Youri produced what I’d rank as his second-greatest goal (the Cup Final strike being untouchable). Older readers may remember a goal by Terry McDermott for Liverpool at Spurs in about 1980. He cushioned a cleared ball on his thigh before swinging through on his right foot to dip it past Pickford. It was one of those goals where you could tell from the other players’ faces that it was something really special.
One-nil is never comfortable (as we found in injury time at this ground in April), but we stayed strong after the break, and pleasingly Rodgers didn’t make his usual mistake of changing the formation and bringing on Vestergaard to ‘protect’ the lead (Soyuncu) being injured.
A massive slice of our recovery cake must go to Wout Faes, who like Evans seems to have the ability to stabilise a weaker partner (ie Amartey). I really admire the way Soumare decided to stick it out here rather than return to France, but I’m still glad when Mendy comes on to replace him (in a fit/on form Ndidi’s absence).
Madders hit the outside of the post from outside the box as we sought the killer second goal, before it arrived in the 86th minute in exciting style. Barnes steamed down the left wing, then drifted inside to receive a return pass from Madders, then swivel and thump home adjacent to our fans. I’ve been to Everton about 10 times in the last 25 years without seeing us win, so my absence was a price worth paying.
FOXES: Ward 8, Justin 7, Castagne 7, Faes 7, Amartey 7, Soumare 6, Barnes 8, Tielemans 9, Maddison 9, Dewsbury-Hall 7, Daka 7. Subs: Mendy, Vardy, Albrighton, Ndidi.
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation