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Some light on the horizon?
There has been a sombre mood amongst the Goodison faithful for some time now and the Grand Old Lady has had the atmosphere of a funeral parlour as the team continued to stumble and under perform. But at long last there are signs that David Moyes side will perform their now customary second half of the season revival.
Two successive league defeats against Bolton at home and at Spurs in a week and an unconvincing win against the minnows from Tamworth in the FA Cup had further fuelled the gallows humour with only the temporary arrival of the classy Landon Donovan to lighten the gloom. This was then followed by yet another Old Trafford cast off as Fergie continued to give his Glasgow mate another bargain basement signing in the form of Darron Gibson. Will Jack Rodwell make the reverse trip in the summer one might ask?
Two successive 1-1 draws followed as the usual failings in front of goal continued to have the fans tearing their hair out. Tim Cahill may have ended his drought with a fortuitous goal against Blackburn but quite simply the ‘goals for’ column told the story of a season that was constantly firing blanks. Would the FA Cup bring some respite? Well it did and the inspiration for the deserved 2-1 triumph over Fulham was ‘The Firecracker’ Denis Straqulasi who has been the butt of many jokes during his brief time at Goodison with many venturing that he was the worst player ever to pull on a blue shirt! Well given the rare opportunity to start a game he played like a man possessed and was duly rewarded with a fine headed goal. Another home draw against lower opposition in Round 5 further lightened the gloom and most supporters wondered what rabbits Moyesey might pull out of the hat on transfer deadline day; and there was also the small matter of a home game against the league leaders.
January 31st may well go down as one of those dates to remember as first Nikita Jelavic, the goal scoring Rangers machine opted for life at the Theatre of Disappointment. This was then followed by an epic victory against City with Darron Gibson blasting home the winner which I am sure was heroically greeted by his former employers. Then as the transfer deadline loomed came the news that the out of form Louis Saha was on his way to join ‘Appy ‘Arry and in return we got the much missed Steven Pienaar until the end of the season. I should imagine Leighton Baines for one is ecstatic having had at least 11 different players in front of him on the left flank this season. So just maybe the tide is turning and we can look forward with confidence to this last third of a so far, disappointing season. Oh and did you hear about the guy who handcuffed himself to Joe Harts’s goalpost as half time approached? It could only happen at Goodison!
Posted by Everton fan Steve Mahon
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