Everton v Bolton Wanderers: Goodison Park, 26th December 2007

After their defeat by Liverpool, back in October, Everton have become one of the best in-form teams in the Premiership.

They have secured a draw, away at Portsmouth.

They have beaten the Russian champions, Zenit St Petersburg, in the UEFA Cup.

They have found victory over Fulham—albeit after an awful first half.

They have taken advantage of two consecutive trips to Upton Park to beat West Ham United—once in the league and once in the Carling Cup, for which Everton’s reward is a semi-final tie against Chelsea.

And finally, they have tallied another win in the UEFA Cup, this time against the Dutch team AZ Alkmaar.

In all, Everton had not been beaten in 13 games. But that run came to a shuddering halt as the Toffees travailed to Old Trafford to face Manchester United.

Everton hadn’t won there since 1993, and it looked like that record would continue as Cristiano Ronaldo scored a screamer after 20 minutes.

But yet again (and for the umpteenth time this season), Tim Cahill was in the right spot to pull Everton level just five minutes later.

The game looked to heading for a draw, until Steven Pienaar had a moment of madness three minutes from full time.

Man Utd’s Ryan Giggs was forced away from goal by Pienaar, then cut in behind him to attempt a cross.

Maybe it was a rush of blood to his head, or maybe it was inexperience, or maybe he just can’t tackle. What ever it was, Pienaar dropped a clanger.

With Giggs behind him, Pienaar stuck out a leg, presumably to knock the ball away.

Now I’m not saying Giggs took a dive—far from it. But Giggs has been at the top of his profession for over ten years, and like any other footballer, if you give him the chance to win a penalty for his team, he’ll take it.

But I’m glad I can still remember the days when a player would attempt to avoid a challenge to create a goal scoring opportunity, then go down under a nothing tackle to win their team a penalty.

But with so much money in football these days, football players like that have long since gone.

Over Giggs went, and Ronaldo scored from the spot to give Man Utd a late win.

Everton will feel they deserved at least a point from the game, no matter what Man Utd assistant manager Carlos Queiroz says.

But they had to get over their disappointment quickly, as they faced free-scoring Bolton Wanderers at home. 

In their last three league games, Bolton had scored nine goals. Everton’s defence needed to be water-tight if they were to overcome a Bolton team trying to put as much distance between themselves and the relegation zone as possible.

Bolton are a big, hard, physical team, and Everton would find it hard going with their lightweight midfield.

Traditionally the Boxing Day game is a dire affair. Everybody is still trying to get over their Christmas dinner, it’s cold, and there are one or two hangovers to contend with—and that’s just the players!

So it’s safe to say we weren’t going to see the best performance of the season. And judging by the first 15 minutes, it looked like we weren’t going to see Everton perform at all.

Bolton were all over the pitch, harassing the Everton players every time they got the ball and producing some good passing play on the floor.

Bolton looked quicker and much more determined, and there was a sense around the ground that it could be a long afternoon.

I can’t tell you why the pattern of the game changed, but suddenly Everton began to play.

Their passes started to find blue shirts, their off-the-ball running began to create space. All of a sudden, Everton realised they were in a game.

And Everton started to have a few shots at goal from distance. But the shots that weren’t blocked were well wide of the target. In fact, the Bolton goalkeeper, Jussi Jaaskelainen, didn’t have to make a save in the entire first half.

Then a shot from outside the box was turned towards goal by Yakubu. In it went, and everyone began to celebrate—only for the linesman to rule it offside.

Yakubu hadn’t been offside but Cahill was, even though he was not interfering with play. So the goal was disallowed.

With all the possession, all the good passing, and all the territory gained by their opponents, it was obvious Everton were going to need a huge piece of luck to break down a resilient Bolton.

That piece of luck came five minutes into the second half.

After starting the half brightly, Everton captain Phil Neville found himself just inside the Bolton half.

With not much happening in front of him, Neville attempted a deep cross towards goal.

As the ball dropped towards the penalty spot, both Jaaskelainen and Cahill jumped for the ball, both managed to miss it, and the ball bounced untouched into the bottom of the goal.

1-0  Everton.

While the rest of the Everton players ran to celebrate, Neville began the long walk back to his right back position, only to be mobbed by the entire team. He hadn’t realized he had scored, thinking someone had got a touch on it.

The crowd took great joy in screaming "Shoot!" every time Neville came any where near the ball.

After Everton had taken the lead, Bolton began to attack more. Nicolas Anelka was a constant threat, and it took some good tackling by Phil Jagielka to keep him from scoring. In fact, Jagielka would be the Man of the Match for his defensive performance.

With 20 minutes left in the game, Lescott got himself down the left wing and crossed in the ball, which fell to Cahill in the edge of the box. Cahill took a right-footed shot that rifled into the top of the net.

2-0  Everton. 

Although down by two, Bolton still attempted to push forward. And with Howard not looking like his usual assured self, you felt that if Bolton could get one goal, they would go on to draw the game.

With time ticking away, Bolton began to lose heart. Though they never stopped trying, they couldn’t break down Everton’s well-drilled defence. And with Pienaar and substitute Andy Johnson threatening to break away at the other end, Bolton couldn’t afford to commit too many men forward.

After three minutes of injury time, referee Rob Styles blew the final whistle.

Conclusions

Everton played well, but it was their defence that had won the game. If not for a great game from Jagielka, and an acrobatic goal line clearance by Lescott, Bolton could have got something out of this match.

Gary Megson has got Bolton playing the same way they did under Sam Allardyce—a hard-tackling team who are dangerous from set pieces. If Bolton carry on like this, they won’t be at the bottom end of the league for long.

Everton will have to produce a similar defensive performance if they are to get anything from their next game against Arsenal.

It will be interesting to see if Everton try to attempt a free-flowing passing game or stick to a more counter attack-based plan.