All week I've been telling my Evertonian mates not to look too far
ahead of themselves, that we need to take one game at a time but I can see why
they are looking ahead though. Why wouldn’t we, this is such a massive chance
for us to progress, not just the quarter finals, but to at least the semi final
and another Wembley trip. However, I am having to stop myself from thinking
like that as that is like tempting fate. This is Everton after all, how many
times have they let us down in the past? I'm definitely once bitten, twice shy when it
comes to Everton and cup games. I really do dislike the things!
I came out of Boundary Park last Saturday night quite angry (and with a headache thanks to my proximity to the Oldham fan with that bloody stupid drum!). Angry at the ending to the game, obviously and also at the performance against a lower league club who are on a poor run of form and have no manager. After taking the lead so early in the second half, I was hoping we had weathered the Oldham storm and we'd push on to see out the tie comfortably, but as has been the case in recent weeks, our performance was too bitty, too hit and miss and not what was needed in such a banana skin of a cup game. You could deny Oldham their equaliser really. They were always going to go for it as the game approached its end; they had nothing to lose in going for it. We should have expected that and been more prepared for the onslaught. They did go for it and got their reward for doing so. Fair play to them for that.
Some of my anger was later directed to Phil Dowd, who failed to
spot Lee Croft's blocking off of Tim Howard, but to blame the referee as a
reason for us not hanging onto the lead is a poor excuse. We need to look at
ourselves, leaving Baines with a two on one which lead to the successive corners
which ultimately resulted in the goal was poor. Duffy who had only been on the
pitch at matter of seconds should not really have been put on marking their
danger man, Matt Smith. For me that should have been Distin or Fellaini's job
to mark him. Our general performance throughout the game was sluggish and
although we did well to get ourselves in the lead after falling behind
relatively early on, we never looked like we'd ever go on to dominate the game
from that point, which is what we really should be doing against lower league
sides. Oldham’s equaliser was on the cards from about the 80th
minute.
So now we move onto Tuesday's replay. I’d like to think that the players know the massive chance we have got here, and will come out with a positive attitude and take the game to Oldham right from the off, which is something we failed to do at Boundary Park. If the likes of Pienaar, Mirallas, Fellaini and Jelavic can play like we know they can, that surely will be enough to get us past this plucky League One team? Hopefully Seamus Coleman will be fit enough to play too, as he'll help to speed up our attacks down our right flank, which at times were quite pedestrian on Saturday and we will have learnt a way to deal more successfully with Matt Smith's physical presence. But as I said before, I've been bitten before by Everton in cup competitions, ironically Oldham was one of those teams who have bit us. It just cannot happen again! The incentive of a home quarter final against Wigan has got to mean something to the players and the manager too; it certainly does to the fans. Hence the excitement from so many of us. We know that we've given such a favourable draw, with the exception of getting Barnsley or Blackburn; we couldn't have picked a better potential quarter final opponent for us. I'd be devastated and fuming if we didn't take this chance.
Who knows, with the uncertainty regarding his contract, this maybe
Moyes' last chance to win something with us, so I'm hoping he and the players
realise this and give us fans the opportunity of at least one Wembley trip this
year. I honestly don’t think we’ll get a better chance of at least getting to
the final and who knows maybe ending our 18 year trophy drought.
So please, please, please Everton, do not give ITV their headline
story of a cup shock on Tuesday, they had that in the fourth round. Play from
first whistle to the last, get Goodison rocking like only it can in a night
match and give me the chance to join some of our other fans in dreaming of
Wembley.
