Cup clash perfect chance for Everton to build late season momentum
Following swiftly on from that extraordinary match at Goodison Park on Thursday and a huge win over Newcastle, Everton travel to South London for their FA Cup sixth round tie tomorrow.
While obviously the priority is Premier League survival, Everton could do with a diversion from the slog for survival and further progress in the FA Cup tomorrow would provide that.
It is also a great chance to finally try and build some positive momentum late in a season that has been so underwhelming and full of so much inconsistency.
That’s been particularly the case recently with a few strong performances and wins at home followed by predictably awful defeats on the road.
Thursday’s victory over the Magpies won’t rate as a great performance in purely footballing terms but from the point of view of what was needed it was absolutely the effort required.
The Blues’ battled and worked hard, a minimum requirement frankly, but something that this group of players have so often utterly failed to do in the recent past.
And, deep into perhaps the longest period of added time I can ever remember in a professional football game and after having had a player sent off, they found a way to win with Alex Iwobi’s well-taken strike securing three precious points.
Tomorrow, with a win over Crystal Palace, comes a chance to reach an FA Cup semi-final, something Everton used to do on a regular basis. Indeed, at one time the Toffees’ held the record for semi-final appearances in this the oldest cup competition in the World.
The FA Cup was also of course the last trophy this club won way back in 1995 when they beat big favourites Manchester United 1-0 at Wembley.
That was also a season when Everton had been fighting relegation (one of far too many of these campaigns over the last 25 years) before Mike Walker was sacked and Joe Royle took over in November 1994.
He won his first match in charge, a derby against Liverpool, and despite a season-long struggle in the then Premiership, he led the team to FA Cup success that May. Could a similarly unlikely thing happen this time round?
Palace away is a difficult tie in the quarter-final and given this team’s away record I don’t have much real hope of a positive result. The Eagles beat the Blues’ comfortably when they last played at Selhurst Park and their crowd will be vocal, a factor this Everton team don’t cope with well on their travels.
In addition, Frank Lampard will be missing his Brazilian midfield lynchpin Allan shamefully sent off by the referee when he reversed his original decision in Thursday’s game.
Everton predictably failed in their attempt to have that decision overturned. If it had been another club would the Premier League have listened to such an appeal?
Allan joins another South American player, Yerry Mina, who the Toffees’ really need to have available but who looks unlikely to play again this season.
On the plus side Dominic Calvert-Lewin might be fully fit again at last giving Lampard more choice at centre-forward.
Other attacking players who did well in the week were Anthony Gordon and Alex Iwobi. Gordon was again a livewire and worked his socks off for the cause while Iwobi had one of his occasional good games running effectively from midfield and of course scoring the winner.
Again, I don’t know what team or tactics Lampard will settle on and whether any of the fringe players like Nathan Patterson will get a chance.
Regardless, if the Blues’ could somehow find a way to win this game it will give the squad a real boost for upcoming games away at places like West Ham and Watford and mean a trip to Wembley for a semi-final, which would at least be something positive this season for the long-suffering supporters of this club.