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Memories of Goodison

Like every Evertonian on Sunday there were a number of times when I simply count not ignore the lump in my throat, and shed many a tear during the club's immaculate send off to Goodison Park, the Grand Old Lady. Like every Evertonian, my thoughts turned to fond memories of my experiences of Goodison. Sadly, I don't remember much of my very first visit as I was only six, but what I do remember plays like an old holiday pic slide show. I don't remember who it was against. I do know that that day there was three generations of my family in attendance, my granddad, my dad and my brother and I made the pilgrimage together to the cathedral in L4. I remember the walk from the carpark on Stanley Park, cutting across the park a little way and then through iron gates onto Priory Road. Goodison loomed just over the tops of houses and grew larger still as we made the journey in, passing the occasional police car parked by the road and travelling as one with the throngs of other support...
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Everton And David Moyes

In the Premier League era its easy to see where Everton have found themselves at the end of most seasons and dismiss them as nothing more than fodder for the more fashionable clubs; a club with little ambition, happy to just be seen near the top table, let alone take it's place among those currently occupying it. That would certainly have seemed the case until the early 2000s when Everton went from a giant of Scottish football in Lanark born Walter Smith - a man who had won everything north of the border and who's CV could rival that of Sir Alex Ferguson at the time - to another Scotsman who was barely known outside of those who regularly followed the Football League at the time. David Moyes was a young manager with a point to prove and the hunger to make it to the big time. He'd come from Preston North End, who like Everton, were founder members of the Football League and another club with a stories history in it's infancy, but not a lot to show for itself in recent ye...
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Another Premier League Attack

 The views in this blog are just my opinion based on what I've read about the new charge against Everton Football Club from the Premier League. It's disgusting that we now have to face a second charge, seventy-five percent of which we have already been punished for and are yet to have our day in court to appeal. How is that possible? How is that legal? From what I have read in the Athletic, The Echo, and TheEsk on X who seems to know an awful lot of the inner workings of this whole thing, we have already been punished for the  19/20, 20/21 and 21/22 seasons. Why, then, are these same seasons being brought up again in the new charge? You can't be charged for the same crime twice, surely, unless they've got new evidence. In which case why wasn't that brought up in the first commission hearings? This whole things seems like it will be rumbling on for years as we go from commission hearing to appeal court month after month. The good news is that this new charge cannot b...
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European Super League: It's Not Dead Yet

So the European Super League saga is back again. This time they have included relegation and promotion and a built-in, tiered league system to claim that success will be based on "sporting merit". Personally I do not see a problem with the current system whereby the best teams in each domestic league already meet to play each other in a "Champions League" formerly the European Cup. So we know from the video that was released how the new ESL would be structured; top tier is the "Star" league with 16 clubs, second tier is "Gold" league with another 16 clubs, then the bottom tier is "Blue" league with 32. Each team plays the other two times and then they go into a play-off style knockout. How very American. They have included relegation and promotion in that the bottom two teams from each tier are knocked down and the winners of the play-off finals in the "Gold" and "Blue" league will be promoted. So you could theoretic...
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Four On The Bounce

What a way to finish the week. I might sound a little bit arrogant when I say this but, truthfully I was always confident we would get a good result against Burnley. The team's confidence is high and they're playing really well in tough circumstances and it was only made tougher with the late injury to Vitaly Mykolenko, necessitating a last minute reshuffle which saw Everton use more 5-4-1 formation with Patterson and McNeil playing as wing-backs. This adjustment worked incredibly well to limit Burnley to half chances at best and Pickford wasn't really troubled by a lot in with only two shots on target for the home side from fourteen. The three former Burnley boys did the business for Everton tonight, with McNeil creating plenty from his slightly deeper position, Tarkowski and Keane only ever looked shaky on a couple of occasions, Godfrey's pace proving pivotal in digging them out of trouble when Burnley did get in behind to steal the ball off the toe of an onrushing Am...
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December to Remember - So Far

Well it's been a little while now but my goodness what a month December has been so far for the Toffees. Six goals in three games, zero conceded and we're out of the relegation zone in less than a month after getting slapped with a ten point deduction for breaching PSR. There was an initial wobble from the Blues when Manchester United came to town but since then, Sean Dyche's Royal Blue Army have been a force to be reckoned with and the results have been pretty significant. We have brushed aside teams we were not fancied to beat, Newcastle United with their Saudi blood money and Chelsea with their splurging American muscle. I have to be honest, however, I have regained my confidence in Everton Football Club this season. They might not play pretty football but it's ugly but effective, like an executioner's axe. Having said that, the twenty-nine pass streak before killing the game off against Newcastle United for the third goal was special and something we can look fo...
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McNeil Fells Forest

I love it when we won you know. Especially when we win against a team we should already be ahead of if the world was right. Nottingham Forest is a game Everton should be winning anyway and we looked alright for most of the game, there were a few occasions where I worried our defence had fallen asleep momentarily and let them in but overall I thought we defended brilliantly. Tarky and Branthwaite were giants at the back once again and kept Chris Woods quiet all game. I don't think there was a single instance where I was worried one of them wouldn't win their duels. Dwight McNeil was back to his best and the more confident Mykolenko gets, the better we look down the left. I thought the two in midfield were brilliant as well and it showed with just how many times they would win the ball back and find passed forwards. Ashley Young only had one wobble when he game away a pointless free-kick out wide when he was beaten for pace by Anthony Elanga. Beto and Doucoure didn't quite co...
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