SON OF SOBS: EVERTON

Our first midweek of the season saw Monday night madness saw a visit from Everton. Evidently Regis thought 5 at the back had worked so well against Chelsea he'd give it a go again. Omar was cautiously rested again with his bad head and Traore was started over Talbi again. Fair enough I suppose, RLB's tactics had been bob on so far - In Regis we trust.

The match also saw the return of two familiar faces. Jordan Pickford - as much talent as he has charisma and David Moyes - as miserable as he is dreary. There that's got that off my chest. Dower man.

Everton kicked of and 5 seconds later had a shot just off target. Good grief. Less of that please. Everton pressed high early on, with Jordan Pickford feeling comfortable enough to stroll nearly as far as the centre circle. We kept our cool even when Big Dan fell over for no obvious reason, perhaps he's been spending too much time with Traore...

The aforementioned winger then worked some magic and played in Issy who was quickly boxed out by the blues. Everton looked sharp going forward with Lord Dewsbury-Hall and Grealish testing our back line. Roefs was having none of it though. He's still only 22?! Traore had our first pop on the 15 minute mark, but he couldn't quite wrap his foot around the ambitious attempt.

A minute later Sadiki has grounded, we looked shellshocked and the ball got away from us. Ndiaye then showed some nifty footwork and found the back of the net. VAR had a glance but the goal stood. Bugger.

Although the it was a chilly night on Wearside the temperature on the pitch began to rise. Sadiki retaliated after (definitely) being fouled and got booked, then Nordi got a yellow for 'being rude'. We had the fire we just needed to use it properly. The pressure continued as the Toffees got stuck in with Grealish finding the post. The opening 25 minutes had been shaky from us.

A number of misplaced passes over the next 10 minutes showed something was clearly in the water. We seemed to be arguing and complaining over every decision. After a long throw from Nordi the ref blew before the ball even reached the box. Everton missed a sitter around 30 mins that woke us up a little and we managed to press forward for a bit ending with Traore, who tried to hit it first time and failed. Our fortress was getting rattled..

We managed to grab the game by the scruff on the neck as the half drew to a close. Enzo found Issy in the box but the Frenchman was let down by his first touch. Better though. Moments later another ball from Captain Xhaka was narrowly short of finding Issy in the box. It then felt like everyone was having a swing for a while as we finally seemed to have found our feet, Even having one cleared off the line.

At half time I thought about googling when the last time was we'd come from behind to win two games in a row was. But I didn't. Hopefully we'd start the second the way we left it.

We did! With a smattering of good fortune and Captain Granit opened his account for the club and drew things level a minute into the second half. Gerrup! Game on. Much better.

Enzo underlined our change of fortune with a shot which drew a save of the season contender from Jordan as it took a deflection. I can only assume the entire squad had been given some kind of Lucozade infused Weetabix during the break. Early signs looked much better. Hume saw his name inevitably added to the book as his ongoing dule with Grealish got heated.

Miserable Moyes attempted disrupt our run of good play by switching things up early on and taking off the lad who'd shat the bed earlier. Said lad then blanked Moyes as he returned to the dugout. Legend has it if you look David Moyes directly in the eye, somewhere in the world a Kitten dies. Pass it on.

The 70 minute mark rolled round and we were yet to make a sub. Wilson made a powerful run into their box but the angle he finally found himself at was far too tight for him and he blazed over. Some clever overlaps and more promising play led to another VAR inspection as Sadiki's cross found the hand of Keane, who'd used his mitts more than Pickford up to this point. Despite his hands flapping in front of him, pointed from his stomach the team behind the scenes deemed them in a natural position.

Wilson found himself in the box again on 76 minutes, but the ball in was slightly behind him and England's number one collected comfortably. Two changes were made from both sides with ten to go as both side looked to take 3 points. Keane kicked Nordi in the head without consequence.

Last week heroes Talbi and Mr Brobbey joined in as Wilson and Traore departed. We'd now had 14 shots. Considering we weren't very good for 40 minutes that's not bad. As Nordi lined up a long throw Ballard was swamped by black shirts - nice to know he's still got their attention.

6 minutes of added time were announced and we didn't look like giving up.

Everton broke on the counter after another long throw but their attacker spent far too long thinking about it and was over powered by the lads as they tracked back. Hume was felled and the ref decided not to give a free kick, despite awarding one to the visitors against Brobbey for an identical tackle ten minutes earlier.

Full time: 1-1

A funny game that we'd looked the better team for the majority. Sadly, we'd not quite looked sharp enough from the get go. All that being said it goes without saying we've already set the bar incredibly high. That's not a bad thing.

Still unbeaten at home. This puts us up to 4th. Legend has it David Moyes haunts ghosts. Pass it on.

KTF,

GPD