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This Season Match Report 2000-01 - Everton (a) Premiership |
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Half time: Everton 0 Newcastle 0 47 mins. Shearer stumbled into the Everton box and regaining his footing, robbed Xavier on the left side of the area before putting over a low cross. Keeper Gerrard could only push the ball into the path of Unsworth and the ball ran into the empty net from his boot, with Solano lurking behind. 1-0 82 mins. Steve Caldwell bumped into Campbell in the box at the Gwladys Street end of the ground and referee Elleray pointed to the spot after short deliberation, amid appeals from home fans and players. Unsworth shot low to Given's right as the keeper went the other way. Full time: Everton 1 Newcastle 1
Uncle Bobby fumed about the penalty awarded against Caldwell: "The lad is distraught. He jumped body to body and their player fell over like a pack of cards. "He didn't make a quick decision but there was the roar from the crowd and then the penalty was awarded. "The lad is upset because he knows that without that decision we would have won. "He told me that he'd jumped clean as a whistle and that he didn't push their player." Robson was also upset with a booking for veteran Robert Lee for throwing the ball away from a free-kick. He said: "Robert just threw the ball down in anger and it bounced away. "He didn't kick it away or anything like that, I think the referee has really got to do better with decisions like that." Robson, whose side had lost their previous three games, added: "We needed to end that run and we did. "I had a lot of very young defenders out there because of injuries and they did very well."
Walter Smith said: "We should have had the game wrapped up and I was delighted that we got something we deserved to get ourselves back into the game. "For a long time it looked like just one of those days. "We just didn't capitalise on the chances we made." Smith's version of the penalty decision was: "I wouldn't argue with the referee about that. When you barge into a player the referee is likely to give a spot-kick."
With Shola and Shearer failing to link up
effectively, we were no better than in the previous two games when going
forward, and posed no threat at all to the home defences, discounting a
half-reasonable penalty appeal from Shearer in the early stages. The failure
to give this award, and a yellow card for pointing out that an Everton free
kick was being taken in the wrong place can be added to his personal
Goodison list of woe, already including a goal chalked off on his United
debut and of course his serious pre-season injury in 1997. No wonder he
looked relieved when he left the gorund after the match. Put simply, Caldwell is everything that
someone like Marcelino is not - not afraid to put in tackles where there is
a risk of injury, cajoling his more experienced colleagues, organising the
defence and generally giving the appearance of someone committed to the
cause. Whether Goma was actually injured or Bobby was still fuming about his
refusal to withdraw his transfer request isn't clear, but Caldwell once
again proved a willing and able deputy to the big money boys. Going back to the Everton penalty award,
Bobby went bonkers afterwards, but TV replays and seeing it from behind a
pillar in the away end proved inconclusive and Everton had created other
goal scoring chances, only to spurn them. To point to the penalty as denying
us the three points in no way tells the story of this game. Two remarkably
average sides were unable to raise themselves sufficiently to dominate the
contest, and relied on alleged or real mistakes for their goals. Hardly the
stuff of legend, and we can only be grateful that SKY opted not to show this
forgettable game this time out. Having something to cheer of course is also handy..... Chant of the day - apart from
frequent renditions of "you'll never walk alone", which
annoyed the home fans, the most popular song of the afternoon was an
increasingly popular version of the hokey cokey that immortalises Shola
Ameobi. Far more entertaining than yet another trip to Goodison for a match
almost totally devoid of quality football or entertainment. |
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