Off to Goodison in search of points

Last updated : 18 April 2015 By Tony Scholes

Much has been said about our last eight games, starting with the trip to Old Trafford in February up to and including last Saturday's home game against Arsenal.

Those eight games were against the teams currently in the top eight places. They couldn't have been any tougher but we cannot, we must not, believe that things are going to get easy from now on.

That's simply not the case. We have six very difficult games remaining of which four are away from home , and it starts tomorrow with a trip to Goodison Park for what will be only our fourth competitive fixture against Everton in over 39 years.

They are the second longest serving team in the top flight of English football and so we've only spent 2009/10 and the current season in the same league as them since 1976 and not once in that time have we been paired in any of the cup competitions, our last FA Cup clash coming in 1967.

The lads are feeling brilliant says Sam Vokes

We know we are going to need more points if we are to stay up. How many is anyone's guess right now but with many of the others picking some up in recent weeks it's left us back in 19th place and now only one point clear of Leicester.

You would think, looking at the table, that it is likely to be three from five for the drop, that's Sunderland, Hull, QPR, us and Leicester. Aston Villa's win last week has taken them six points clear of the bottom three and at this stage you'd think they will probably be safe.

Someone we are going to have to find some more away points and that will not be easy. Right now, only QPR have less away points than us, they have seven and we have eight with Leicester on 11 points the third worst. And we face an Everton team who have hit a bit of form recently with three wins and a draw in their last four games.

Scoring goals has been a problem again. We've scored just one goal in the last six games since our 1-1 draw at Chelsea. That goal, a superb effort from George Boyd, won the three points against Man City, but we have to get a better return in the next six games of that there's no doubt.

Sam Vokes will be hoping to get his first league goal in over a year. He's been back in the side now for four games. He came close at Southampton but he will want that Ings/Vokes partnership, so lethal last season in the Championship, to start firing again.

Ahead of tomorrow's game he said: "The lads are feeling brilliant and it's been a good little run for us recently, a tough one, but we've come out of it with some good results and performances so we go into this weekend full of confidence.

"Everton are another strong side in this league so it will be tough but we've got some big results against Man City, Tottenham and Chelsea. It doesn't get any easier at this level, we know that, but it's a chance for us to go to Goodison and show what we're all about really."

Vokes will be hoping to retain his place in the side after completing 90 minutes last week for the first time since his injury, and there's no doubt that the team will be similar, if not identical, to the one that played last week.

It was almost a clean bill of health last week with all of Steven Reid, Matt Taylor and Ross Wallace all fit, although only one of them made the bench. There have been no reports of any further injuries this week but Marvin Sordell, who was ruled out last week, is fit again.

If there are no changes, our team will be: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, George Boyd, Scott Arfield, David Jones, Ashley Barnes, Danny Ings, Sam Vokes. Subs from: Matt Gilks, Steven Reid, Michael Keane, Stephen Ward, Matt Taylor, Fredrik Ulvestad, Ross Wallace, Michael Kightly, Lukas Jutkiewicz, Marvin Sordell.

There were big changes at Everton last season when David Moyes left for Man United. He was replaced by Wigan boss Roberto Martinez and they enjoyed a fifth place finish last season.

This season has been more difficult, with many pointing to the distraction of Europa League involvement for their disappointing start, but recently they've got themselves moving in the right direction again.

The real problem was that from the end of November they won just two of sixteen league games. It was a run that saw them slump and if it was only four places in the league it did leave them only narrowly above the relegation positions.

During that poor run they failed to beat Hull in two games against them, one drawn and one lost, and also managed nothing more than draws at home against West Brom and Leicester, where it took a late own goal to get that draw.

But a comfortable home win against Newcastle has changed things round for them. They followed that up with a win at QPR, with another late goal, and an impressive home win against Southampton, before drawing last week at Swansea.

They've got good news tomorrow with the return of Romelu Lukaku after missing a month with a hamstring injury although Leon Osman remains a doubt with a groin injury and it is unlikely that either Bryan Oviedo or Aiden McGeady will be ready despite being back in training.

Lukaku, a big money signing from Chelsea, is their leading goalscorer. He's got eight in the league, one ahead of Steven Naismith.

Their line up last week at Swansea was: Tim Howard, Seamus Coleman, John Stones, Phil Jagielka, Leighton Baines, James McCarthy, Gareth Barry, Aaron Lennon, Ross Barkley, Leon Osman, Aroune Kone. Subs: Joel Robles, Muhamed Besic, Antolin Alcaraz, Luke Garbutt, Kevin Mirallas, Steven Pienaar, Steven Naismith.

 

Last Time We Were There

I don't think any of us envisaged that our last visit to Goodison Park, in December 2009, would be the last time Burnley would be under the management of Owen Coyle in a league game, but by the time we next turned out in the Premier League he'd gone.

He made no changes to the side. With both Clarke Carlisle and Steven Caldwell ruled out, he played Michael Duff again alongside Andre Bikey with Kevin McDonald making another rare appearance in midfield to deputise for Bikey.

David Nugent hit the woodwork

We were fortunate on a couple of occasions early in the game as Everton started well, one of them hitting the post, but we did get into it more as the half went on although twice Brian Jensen was forced into making saves.

It was 0-0 at half time though and I think we were somewhat fortunate to still be level although the one thing that had gone against us was a decidedly unfortunate yellow card for Stephen Jordan from Howard Webb who had appalling first half.

We came out in the second half and looked much better. McDonald had a chance but missed the target and then David Nugent, at his beloved Goodison, hit the inside of the post.

Then came the inevitable. Jordan, with a hardly disguised shirt pull, was yellow carded again by Webb. There were no complaints at this one and he had to go for a second yellow. Coyle immediately brought on Christian Kalvenes but astonishingly withdrew Nugent much to everyone, including Nugent's, amazement.

It was all about defending with ten men and we did that with no problems at all until James Vaughan came on with nine minutes to go. Two minutes later he'd scored his first Everton goal in a long time. Coyle ranted then for offside and repeated his claims in the after match interviews, but television evidence showed it was offside.

Webb then decided to card Tyrone Mears for a fair challenge, a card that got him a suspension just minutes before the end of the last game of the year, and that just left enough time for Steven Pienaar to score to ensure we'd conceded at least two goals in every away game.

That was nine Premier League games without a win and there were no some serious concerns of our ability to stay in this league. Things were very soon to take another turn.

The teams were;

Everton: Tim Howard, Tony Hibbert, Lucas Neill, John Heitinga, Leighton Baines, Diniyar Bilyaletdinov (James Vaughan 81), Leon Osman, Marouane Fellaini, Steven Pienaar, Tim Cahill (Phil Neville 60), Yakubu. Subs not used: Carlo Nash, Seamus Coleman, Shane Duffy, Kieran Agard, Jose Baxter.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Michael Duff, Andre Bikey, Stephen Jordan, Wade Elliott (Robbie Blake 85), Kevin McDonald, Graham Alexander, Chris Eagles, David Nugent (Christian Kalvenes 63), Steven Fletcher (Steven Thompson 81). Subs not used: Diego Penny, David Edgar, Joey Gudjonsson, Fernando Guerrero.

 

Previous Games against Everton

 

Last 20 Years
Season Comp Ven Res Att  Scorers
2009/10 Premier League h 1-0 19,983 Elliott
    a 0-2 39,419  
2014/15 Premier League h 1-3 19,927 Ings

 

Click HERE to see all previous results against Everton