Everton1 v 1Bristol Rovers                                                   20th September 2000

WORTHINGTON CUP 2nd ROUND 1st LEG

0 - 0 Half-time 1 - 0 (Campbell 50mins) 1 - 1 (Hogg 87mins)

Everton: GERRARD ,| CLELAND, WEIR, UNSWORTH, WATSON, PISTONE , |ALEXANDERSSON, NYARKO, BALL,| CAMPBELL & JEFFERS|

Bench: S.HUGHES (for Pistone 9 mins), MOORE (for Alexandersson 77 mins), GASCOIGNE (for Ball 83 mins), GEMMILL & SIMONSEN

M.O.M. : SUPER KEV Worked hard and came through full game and scored a good’un

‘That don’t impress me much’ sang Shania Twain as the Everton players trudged off the Goodison pitch for the second time in four days backed by a chorous of boos! Pre-match everything seemed there to put right the problems following the Man U debacle, Super Kev to play his first full match in front of a severly swelled crowd due to the reduced prices of £2 for kids & OAP’s and £10 for adults - sit anywhere plus a surprisingly large away support. There was even a rainbow in the sky to greet us on our arrival. Then it all started to go wrong, perhaps there was no programme so we would not be confused by Walter’s team selection, it soon became obvious that we would. Someone asked recently ‘is Walter on Drugs?’ that should now read ‘Walter is on drugs’. Now whilst we were up against a side who have not yet been beaten this season they are in the 2nd division, so what does he do ? Plays a 5-3-2 formation dropping Gazza, Dunne, & the Hugheses, not only that but he plays 6, yes SIX defenders!!

We lost the toss and kicked into the Street End, started brightly enough a Cleland cross being headed over for a corner in the first minute, Nyarko hitting his volley wide from the corner. Pistone went off after 9 mins (have we bought a crock here?) to be replaced by Stephen Hughes with Ball moving to left wing back and Hughes filling the middle left role. There was precious little to shout about in the first half with the exceptions of an Alexandersson lob which was tipped over for a corner and in the last minute when Super Kev had a half chance which he really should have buried. Rovers posed very little threat but worked hard to get men behind the ball and make it difficult HALF-TIME 0 - 0

Someone summed it up by saying ‘four out of our five defenders have had stinkers’ the exception being Davy Weir (he saved his bit ‘til the second half) and of course Hughes had replaced Pistone. Surely things must be changed, either the shape or by fresh faces, but no, same routine. Now don’t get me wrong things did improve in the second half (slightly) and we should have won the game comfortably as both Campbell & Jeffers could have scored twice, but they didn’t On 50mins after a good cross was swung over from the right by Cleland, Super Kev put a good header away into the bottom left corner. At last something for the thousands of kids to cheer . We should have gone on to press home advantage here but we didn’t, Rovers worked hard and came at us, serving notice but again with little threat. Hughes was booked on 75 mins for a second strong challenge and two mins later Joe Max came on for Alexandersson who had probably his best game so far this season - at least he was trying to go forward and either beat his man or look for a probing pass. After 83 mins Gazza came on for Ball who was strolling as usual for most of the match, with the exception of a decent cross and an interception in the second half. Then disaster struck Davey Weir lost the ball in a dangerous situation on the right as we were coming out of defence, a last ditch tackle by Unsworth prevented a certain goal and went for a corner. From the corner Gerrard flapped as the ball was played back across the box, Hogg smashed the ball towards goal it took a deflection and flew past Gerrard. Is Tommy Myhre still available because the defence seem to have no confidence in Gerrard? So there you have it, Walter will be able to explain it better than me, the kids went home disappointed as did the rest of us, as for the £2 & £10, they will be paying us to come if it continues like this. Shania, it don’t impress me much either!

Walter Says:"We always expected a tough game," he admitted. "All the reports on them suggested they were very well organised and showed a good attitude.I think if you look at the play overall, Bristol Rovers to their credit made us work very hard," he suggested. "They competed very well and for the amount of effort we have no great complaint about the result."

Sausage

reports from

Goodison Park

Blue Kipper Star Man

Kevin Campbell