At bluekipper.com our organisational skills have been compared to those of Dad's Army hence this match report appears two days late! Now given the pre, half time & post match bevvies that went down on Boxing Day the report was guaranteed to be late anyway!
What a great feeling that Boxing Day match is, get out the 'ouse, still intoxicated from a Crimbo bender, meet the lads, watch the Toffeemen & start all over again!
Once again the Blue Kipper lounge was heaving & rocked to 'Kop Aid' for one last time, news came through of the team and that Watto was in for Ozzy who had obviously struggled to get over his knee injury.

The feeling of expectation was there again, City are up and down like Barrymore's trousers so were were hoping we would find them down by their ankles. They had also had a week of publicity following Joey Barton's antic's on the players Christmas do - putting a cigar in a youth players eye - the story goes that he was dressed as Jimmy Saville hence the cigar & it was retaliation after the youngster had put a lighter to Joey's outfit - he obviously thought it was a smoking jacket (bubum). So Joey puts his cigar out in the kids eye! Now we know Joey is an Evertonian and we know his favourite player is Stubbs but this was taking things too far!
Anyway he was dropped to the bench as he wasn't 'match' fit. There was also added spice in this one with City ousing redshite connections in Keegan, Wavey Davey, Niclas Sulka & the loveable Robbie and the return to his home of the Dunneymonster.

The first half was a pretty scrappy affair where City had probably the majority of the possession, it was starting to look like Blackburn revisited when the Dunneymonster decided to give us a Brucey Bonus. He was in a chase for a ball with Benty into the EDSA corner with ball going harmlessly out of play when Dunney decides to give Marcus a WWF shove, cue free kick and Tommy Grav. Tommy sent over a beauty and with Wavey Davey living up to his name, Timmy the blue kangaroo met the cross from a great run and headed us in front. The full house went bonkers, loads of Fowler baiting & choruses of 'Now yer gonna believe us...'
Game on, now whilst City had plenty of possession they had not created a chance so it looked like we were going in at half time one up so I went downstairs for the Chang (Lard had beat me to it and there were 6 lined up half way down the stairs) so Jogger, Lavo & myself had the joy of watching the loveable Robbie head a bullet of and equaliser & get booked for running the length of the pitch smacking the top of his head in retaliation to the 'smack'ead' taunts. He got booked for his efforts. There was still time for one last effort and Stevie Watson almost put us back in front but it wasn't to be & we supped our Chang and took solace in the £20 we had put on Timmy at 7-1 to score the first goal - get in you beauty!

Half-time: EVERTON 1 Man City 1.

Moyesy must have got stuck into them at half time because we bossed it apart from their late flourish after we had gone in front. Killa was torturing slap'ead Mills who as usual was getting the crowd excited, Tommy was bossing midfield & Hibbo n Pisto were raiding down the flanks. The goal came from one of those raids, Hibbo burst down the right and crossed low into the box (if Hibbo gets his crossing sorted he'll play for England) a poor clearance landed at Tommy's feet, he shaped to have a shot then pinged a cross to the far post which fooled the City defence leaving Benty the task of sending a bullet header into the back of the Gwladys Street net - he duly obliged - cue Derby style 'pile on' and the place went bonkers again.

Duncan came on for Watto who looks to be injured on his first game back, Tommy got taken off before he flattened Mills and got himself sent off & Joey came on to tighten things up for the three points. City threw the kitchen sink but we held on. They also had the briefest of appearances by their sub Negouai (say that after a few Chang's) who was sent off for an over the ball challenge on Marcus Bent. There was also a cracking cameo right at the end, City sent Wavey Davey up front for a corner in injury time, we cleared the ball and as Wavey was running back he challenged Duncan for a header which the big man won fair and square. The ref gave a foul against Duncan, the ref received the hair dryer treatment off Dunc in the same way as Bennett got it in the Derby after Hyppiarse had fallen over!

So it was the perfect Boxing Day scenario, we'd all received our pressies 24 hours earlier but this was the real pressy we wanted, 3 points! Come on you Blues! 'And now yer gonna believe us...'
There were some top performances in the second half, Killa, Hibbo, Pisto, Nige looked safe, Benty run his socks off and Tommy bossed the middle but Kipper says TImmy the blue kangaroo was Star Man and so be it! We retired to the BK Lounge for copious post match celebrations (Top 3 all won!) bring on Charlton.

Full-time: EVERTON 2 Man City 1.

Sausage Reports from Goodison Park

Blue Kipper
Star Man

Tim Cahill

Hohoho
By
Mickey Blue Eyes

Either consumerist hordes were less this year or I’m even luckier with family and friends than I think I am. At any rate my holiday shenanigans have been excellent without descending into the kind of drunken search for the unobtainable “good time” you get every weekend in every city centre throughout the land. I hope yours have been similar – much laughter, much family, no drunk loud-mouthed binge loonies reeking of lager and/or cannabis or worse. Smile, relax and relish – it’s easy.

It’s a good deal easier to smile where the hobby of Evertonian footy is concerned these days. Third place and STILL looking good is something even the craziest optimist wouldn’t have forecast after Paul Gregg kicked off the season with his self-interest diatribe aided by the Sharesellers Association, plus the sale of Wayne Rooney. So everything that has happened since has been in spite of them, which is all credit to the players, Moyesy and those who didn’t panic in the face of head-bangers propaganda. Therefore, the holiday has been terrific. What more could you ask for apart from an inward investment of three hundred millions and a new stadium on the waterfront??

Well, three points against Manchester Sitteh would be a welcome addition to all those prezzies you got. And to illustrate how everybody feels these days there was an air of just such expectancy before and during the Manc game. For veterans there is nothing new about it of course, but for kids their expression of bemused wonder tells you all you need to know about our present form and position. Somebody has rubbed a magic lamp, probably Moyesy. Me, I expected an awkward game because ever since I can remember virtually every game we’ve played against that lot has given us cause to get footy-irritable. Sitteh are a pest, Danny Mills-wise. And even their present line up has just enough outstanding players to let you know you can’t be sure of anything against them. That’s footy-wise of course. Robbie Fowler is another matter. You knew for dead certain he was going to get persecuted throughout and that he would probably score. And so it was.

Pre-match I had the kind of extra holiday prezzie you can’t price. I had to blink, but there he was standing there. At first I thought it was a mirage. No, there stood John all the way from California, whose address details I had lost. It was yet another illustration of how times have changed. The last time I saw him he was in England for the same holiday during Smiffy’s reign, and he didn’t even see us score a goal never mind register a victory in something like four or five games. On one memorable occasion we were up at Sunderland in the coldest weather imaginable. He literally had icicles tinkling from his eyebrows. All Evertonians are mad so it was great to see he still shares the extended family trait. Welcome back, John, communications restored.

No Leon from the start, Steve Watson wide right mid instead. You have to say he slotted in easily even though he hasn’t got Leon’s youth or ball control on his side.

Like everybody else against us these days Sitteh packed the midfield and tried physical intimidation first. Whereas, if they had any sense they’d use their better players to try and unlock our defence brilliantly marshalled by Davey and Stubbsy. Not that it stops us playing some really good footy in the kind of little triangular movements all good teams are adept at. Know-nothing media infoclerks of course are apt to ignore the latter while they wait for the bubble to burst. But as Dicky Mint and Chris keep telling me, who gives a shit if the media get it wrong so long as we keep getting it right? These are wise words. If we are in the same position at the end of the season not only will it be amazing it will be time to scorn the same media curmudgeons into an asylum.

In this game there was the usual amount of fractious play that Our Boys will not be reduced by this season. They can look after themselves despite the kind of thuggery we have come to expect from somebody like Danny Mills, presumably recruited by the seemingly eternally teary Keegan to provide “backbone” to his wayward team. The rest of their team were awkward, nothing more. But the combination of Mills and a weak referee allowed the match to descend to a level of needless niggle when we retaliated. In the end it could easily have been a draw. But being biased I thought we deserved to win by the small margin we achieved.

There were a couple of early efforts but none had the short range of a Manc free header, dead centre of the Street End goal, which went narrowly over instead of where it should have been, the back of Nige’s net.

Five minutes later we got the first after an attack down Danny Mills’ flank ended as usual in a foul for us. The Gravedigger took it, everyone ran every which way, the Manc defence ran after them, and Tim arrived from nowhere, edge of the goal area right side and butted it in unmarked. It was a classic sucker goal and went home with such venom you felt Tim had learned the lesson of his terrible miss against the pinkies.

The rest of the half was mostly dominated by us, though Wright-Phillips showed why he’s twice the all-round player his father never was by covering every blade of grass in sight. He accelerates like a Jaguar and has tremendous close control but Lee Carsley snuffed out his worst threats, or ushered him wide relatively out of harm’s way. Let him run at your defence and you deserve what you get. Anelka was his usual disgraceful self – “self” being the operative word. You can’t look at him without thinking what a self-indulgent waste of talent he is. The Mancs had nobody else, really. Which more or less guaranteed Fowler would get one.

Sure enough, a couple of minutes from the half time whistle their man got in a good cross from wide right, one which still would have been cleared normally by Stubbsy or Davey. But it landed right on the ex-pinkys forehead and it bulleted in superbly beyond Nige’s left hand and over one of ours on the line. Understandably, said ex-pinky took off on a quarter tour of the running track, smacking the top of his head in response to the “smack head!” taunts which persecuted him all afternoon. By the time he got back to his position for the kick off, trembling with revenge, he was followed by the useless ref who gave him a yellow card and induced more delighted roars of “smack head!” Whatever the amused diversion, it was 1-1 and we had it to do all over again. So did Fowler; every time he went near the touchline thereafter he was faced by a massed wall of grinning Evertonians all smacking the tops of their heads. It was quite a sight, doubtless due to get into Evertonia footy folk lore.

Then a minute before half time Stevie had a point blank effort diverted at the last moment by a defenders lunge. The corner came to nothing.

We had the first shot of the second half when Marcus – once again solo tireless, once again taking loads of stick from defenders – hit it across goal. Then Mills of all people hit a tremendous shot brilliantly saved and held by Nige. It was mostly us again though and finally we got the winner a quarter hour into the half after an attack down their left had them once again pulled out of position, a defender made a bad hash of a clearance, their left side and sent it direct to Gravesen. He sort of half lifted, half chipped a cross into our left side of the box and Marcus once again, er, smacked it home with his head. Nobody was more deserving.

Eventually the inevitable happened after Mills kicked out once too often, got booked and eventually taken off before he was sent off. It won’t bother me one iota if we never see him on a footy field again. The Gravedigger got booked for mouthing off at the same time to both Mills and referee. Everyone around me was trying to tell the ref something too but he couldn’t book everyone.

Afterwards we had a couple of scares largely due to the brilliant play of Wright-Phillips. Fortunately his colleagues have nowhere near the same amount of ability. This was never better demonstrated than when one of their subs got sent off after barely two minutes on the pitch after kicking out during a left wing attack. Maybe he had been listening to the appalling Mills too closely.

Late on, Marcus limped off the field to another well deserved, storming reception. But once again the entire team deserved it. Once again they played very good stuff in patches and allied it with determination and will to chase every ball until they got it back. It’s all very heady.

And well worth coming all the way from California to see.