I was not alone in sharing a head-in-hands moment when the Everton team sheet was released at Fratton Park this afternoon. Without the talismanic Tim Cahill, the match against resurgent opponents Portsmouth became even more difficult. However, it was to be the other Tim in the Everton team that would grab all the headlines from a Toffee's perspective.
David Moyes' men could not have asked for a better start, with Leighton Baines topping off a fine week by scoring his first goal for Everton within the first four minutes. And the free kick, in all essence, was superb. I am sure I am not the only Evertonian that has been frustrated over the past few seasons as Arteta, Pienaar, Osman and even Jagielka have stepped up and took substandard free kicks, with the former Wigan man watching on. Baines proved on various occasions for his previous employers that he is a free kick specialist, and he provided more evidence today.
However, Everton seemed to score the goal a bit too early, and soon, they took their foot off the pedal and handed the impetus to the South Coast side. As Evertonian urgency started to dwindle, and Pompey stature started to grow, all could sense an insuing goal for the home side. Everton failed to clear a dubious corner, and when the ball was looped back into Johnson at the back post, he provided Crouch with an easy header from five yards.
The man to blame for Everton shipping a goal was not Joleon Lescott, who was completely bullied all afternoon by Crouch, but rather American goalkeeper Tim Howard. Tim's reluctance to clear his six yard box and tell his defenders to push out cost him again today, as they dropped too deep. As the ball was flighted towards the freakishly tall Crouch, Howard remained on his line, and was a sitting duck to whatever the former Liverpool man could conjure. Even if Tim would have came for it and Crouch would have beaten him and put the ball in the net, the referee would no doubt give the away side a free kick, as it seems to be protocol in the modern game. Andy Gray vs. Watford anyone?
And so, the game was poised at 1-1 and with Moyes saying before the game he wanted a win, it was hard to see such ambition reflected on the pitch. In reality, Everton only managed to create one other chance, when Jo found himself unmarked from the edge of the penalty area at the end of the first half. Displaying an intense lack of confidence, the Brazilian took his shot early, and could only manage to skew his effort wide of the target. Half time.
In the second half, like the first, it was the Merseysiders who started the better, enjoying long spells of possession. However, despite finding themselves with a large number of free kicks and corners, Everton failed to take advantage. Set pieces are a massive part of Everton's game since the loss of Arteta, but the tall, powerful backline of Portsmouth proved too physical for the Toffees.
And this lack of physicality was again punished, when Peter Crouch leaped above both Joleon Lescott and Marouane Fellaini to put the relegation contenders 2-1 up. However, surely Howard must expect the lanky figure of Crouch is going to win most things in the air, and so should not allow his six yard box to be so crowded. It is true the American goalkeeper was impeded on his way off his line by Kanu and so it would be hard to completely blame him for the Portsmouth winner, but he did not exactly fill me with confidence.
As others have levelled criticism at the Everton goalkeeper for the David Wheater and Ryan Shawcross goals at Goodison lately, I have bit my tongue, and did not think he was culpable in the Wheater case especially. However, he was semi-culpable for the Ryan Shawcross header in the Stoke game, and indiviual errors are slowly sneaking into his game.
After going a goal behind, Everton failed to create any clear-cut opportunities, and it took Moyes until the 85th minut to decide it was time to bring startlet Dan Gosling on. There seemed to be a lack of urgency from both manager and team at Fratton Park today. The final whistle ended a miserable affair for the travelling Everton faithful.
The defeat in reality, may extinguish our faint hopes of fourth, but we must still fight until the very last game because you never know what can happen in football. However, only people of extreme ignorance would entertain the thought that the match was one of our easier games in the run-in, as it was one of our hardest. A resurgent Portsmouth, scrapping for every inch on their way to Premier League survival, at a notoriously difficult place to play does not sound like the easiest job in the world. Couple this with the absence of our three most effective forward thinking players- Cahill, Arteta and Yakubu- and it is easy to see how uphill a task the match was.
Maybe it was one step too far for Everton, who have been on an incredible run as of late, as they toppled in a game that very few expected them to be defeated in. The return of Tim Cahill should stabilise the team as we will once again have a figure in midfield who is able to put his foot on the ball and retain possession easier, but as highlighted in the Stoke match, there are still signs of naivity in Mr. Moyes' management approach.
This, is not a problem, as he is a young ambitious manager working with little resources, and so we will excuse him the odd mistake on a road paved with the flags of experience. The man at the helm is learning just as much as some of the young players on the pitch, and with the return of our key players next season, and hopefully one or two signings, Everton will be a major threat to any team once again. At the moment, given we have reached "the business end of the season", it is all about scrapping and picking up points, and we have been doing that well recently. Next, Everton host Wigan at Goodison Park and hopefully a win can reignite our league ambitions, but Evertonians need to remember it has been a fantastic response from a depleted squad, that was getting booed off with sub-standard results at the start of the season.
If we are unable to overtake niether Arsenal nor Villa, I for one will be blaming this on the start of the season, not results like the one today.
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