England V Mexico

This is a useful site :

Where's the match.

Helped me find out what channel the England v Mexico game is on later.

Do not care avout the score one bit, just need an injury free 90 minutes.

Football videos

Two great footy vids just been posted on The People's Forum

Eddie Kavanagh on Phoenix from the flames (Frank Skinner and David Badiel's old footy show)



and this tribute to truly the worst penalty I've ever seen by Leicester City's Yann Kermorgant

At Goodison as always

Stuey's song of the day : Gardening at Night by REM

Gardening at Night by REM

15th April Anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster

Today is the 21st anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster...the debates, recriminations and boycotts go on but at the end of the day 96 footy fans went the match and didn't come home.

Tough time of year for a lot of people on Merseyside and a time of reflection for the rest of us.

I've no love of liverpool football club but on days like this blood is thicker than water.



And remember, don't buy The Sun

Arrrrrrrrrgh! Aston Villa 2-2 Everton

How annoying is that???? Everton really should have won at Villa Park tonight. 90th minute own goal equaliser to deny us the points. Gutted.

A win would have really put us in with a great chance of sneaking a Europe League spot (unless Portsmouth snaffle it in the courts). Don't think it will happen now. Pity really...but ultimately we gave the rest of the league a t month head start and and the business end of the season the wearyness is beginning to show.

Goodison Park View Selector

I know I go there all the time but this is still cool

 

Goodison Park view selector

 

Telegraph General Election Map

Love this General Election map found at the Telegraph’s site. It shows all the constituencies laid out rather then geaographically...Big, big north/south divide.

 

Whilst we are at it this is always fun #toryfail

 

footy betting for the weekend

What with the National being on this weekend we are in a gambling mood. Have been looking up the Premier League and FA Cup fixtures at my favourite online bookies.

 

On Saturday we have :

Hull v Burnley   

Home : 3/4

Draw : 5/2

Away : 15/4

 

West Ham v Sunderland              

Home : 11/10

Draw : 9/4

Away : 13/5

 

Then to Sunday :

 

Wolves v Stoke

Home : 5/4

Draw : 9/4

Away : 9/4

 

Blackburn v Man Utd     

Home : 6/1

Draw : 3/1

Away : 1/2

 

 

Liverpool v Fulham         

Home : 3/10

Draw : 4/1

Away : 10/1

 

 

Man City v Birmingham

Home : 4/9

Draw : 16/5

Away : 13/2

               

Add in the FA Cup games :

 

Aston Villa v Chelsea

Home : 5/1

Draw : 14/5

Away : 4/7

 

Tottenham v Portsmouth

Home : 3/10

Draw : 4/1

Away : 9/1

 

So shooting from the hip I'll go for X 1 X 2 1 1 2 1 (Ie Hull & Burnley to draw, Wham to beat Sunderland, Wolves to draw with Stoke, Utd to win, our neighbours to squeak past a leggy Fulham, City to beat a deck-chaired Birmingham and Chelsea and Spurs to win their FA Cup semis with some to spare).

 

A £1 bet will bring back £137 on that lot...but of course it won't happen. Anyone got any tips for the National?

Cap doff of the night

Superb, superb stuff from Fulham once again...still smarts how tamely Everton went out of Europe but it's great to see such craft and endeavour from a team loving their European experience.

Not even going to mention that lot across the park...noticed a swagger and a few cocky comments aimed at United...it's like they never got knocked out of the Champions League all those months. Even if they go onto win the Europa League their "European tournaments knocked out of" column will read the same as everyone else's.

Their ability to collectively airbrush their own perceptions and cheerfully ignore their own double standards is jaw-dropping. I mean I know full well that's a sweeping generalisation and you shouldn't tar everyone with the same brush but really.

Anyway the night belongs to Fulham.

Last night belonged to Barca...I remember them kicking Arsenal off the park in Paris a few years ago but now they are just the most awesome footy side you've ever seen. Any true footy fan should have affection for Barca. Mes que un Club.

Masterchef doesn't getting more ridiculous than this

Ah well, we all love it...the hyperbole is as overblown as ever, the cliff hangers even more climactic, the hosts ever more breathless but Masterchef is probably the only reality tv show I'll ever bother with.

Nice to have Greg and John back together although we miss Michel and Monica ("Get that garnish on the plate NOW").

This year the standard is higher than ever I'd say (although last year's professionals were something else). Glad Dhruv Baker won in the end because A: he was the best one but B: Food Blogger Alex just seemed to build himself up with every soundbite "this was an amazing experience and it just proves how great I am" (well okay, not quite).

Hope there three of them do well, I think I'd happilly go to any Masterchef finalist's resaurant....I would love to know what the finalists cooked in the first Masterchef final compared the quite bonkersly good food getting presented nowadays

Life's a beach

Well, my previous post was musing on Everton’s impetus & attitude between now and the end of the season...any questions I had over that have been blown away by two superb wins.

 

Bolton provided their annual festival of fouling but ultimately came up short. It was gratifying that a team of thugs can still be outplayed by a determined, committed, well organised and above all skillfull team. I have no sympathy for them at all ‘cause they are nothing but a team of thugs who run all day and throw their weight around.

 

More than anything it was totally joyous to see that old style Arteta free-kick sailing into the net. There’s nobody better than Mikel Arteta!

 

Then we move onto City...poor, poor Joleon Lescott ruled himself out with a hamstring injury leaving him to watch helplessly from the stands as Everton took his fellow mercenaries to the cleaners. True we rode our luck more than we did in the Goodison fixture (when Everton were immense) but ultimately the blues showed that a team that has grown organically will always beat a crowd of hastily assembled cherry picked talent.

 

Today Liverpool fans are pretending we did them a favour last night when everyone on Merseyside knows that a draw would have been by far the best result. Whether Everton finish above the like of our neighbours or Villa is still a big long-shot but to rally from forth from bottom and an utterly ridiculous injury list to be 3 points outside the Europa League place is a superb effort.

 

COYB!!!

Coleman & Vaughan

I notice in recent weeks Everton have loaned out James Vaughan and Seamus Coleman to Leicester City and Blackpool respectively. This would back up my theory that Everton have got the deck-chairs out already...players like that would be very useful in a competitive run-in.

 

Hope they do well though because they are players with tonnes of potential, first team football will help them a heck of a lot.

 

 

So what next for Everton?

No Fellaini, no Donovan and a big old gap up to the positions that matter and a big cushion between us and the drop. Some great results recently (Beating Chelsea and United back to back was fantastic and Donovan’s swan song against Hull was great) but you get the feeling that the Spurs and Birmingham games needed to yield at least 4 points for us to keep things rolling.

 

Arteta & Jagielka coming back is a big tonic so do we just sit back and enjoy it all or pin our hopes on a miracle?

 

Ah well, already signed up for next season....got a free scarf for my promptness.

Explanations please : Sporting Lisbon 3-0 Everton

Can someone explain how that happened. Everton were ABJECT. Not inexplicable in itself, we’ve been crap enough for me to know when we deserve a hiding. Last night was bizarre because from the first whistle we just looked miles off the pace. They played like they were in a coma...BUT we are arguably the best team in the Premier League at the moment.

 

So that’s it...a tame fluffing of our lines and our season is looking over with nothing to hope for except the FA Cup going to form and someone above us going into freefall.

 

Stuey's song of the day : One More Hour by Sleater kinny

I know Sleater Kinney feature a lot but I do love that band

Low Happening by The Howling Bells

Stuey's song of the day Low Happening by The Howling Bells

Everton 3 - 1 Man Utd

I would like to think that that match was a watershed for Everton. It was massively significant because no0t only did we beat Man Utd, a rare thing in itself, but we out played them.

It reminded me of last season's 1-1 draw with Arsenal...we didn't beat them in the same old way. We out footballed them, Saturday was the same.

Our successes against big, powerful, classy top-4 sides usually come from a high-tempo, tight gameplan...it's wonderful to see Everton turning on the style and coming out on top.

Absolutely bouncing.

Well done to the New Orleans Saints

Nice story after Hurrican Katrina.

Am gobsmacked how little the ball is in play during an American football match though :

American Football Game-time breakdown.

Game Time 01.57.00 Standing Around 01.09.40 Playing Time 00.11.25 Replays 00.14.21 Sideline Player Shots 00.04.00 Crowd Shots 00.00.19 Referee Shots 00.03.39 Coach Shots 00.06.17

Wonder how much the ball is in play for footy & rugby?

Terrace genius at the rugby

Ugh Yesterday was grim, if England hadn't have won I'd have went to see Invictus fully expecting the All Blacks to beat South Africa in the 95 world cup final.

Everton ballsed up a perfect opportunity to best our nearest and dearest and Waterloo went down to Caldy.

At least this week we went down fighting unlike the previous week's abject humiliation against Macclesfield.

Moment of the day was when we were baiting on of their props, he sarcastically wiped a mock tear from his eye at which point someone piped up "If you want to cry you should come up here and try standing with us".