Blues Europe-bound?

By Chris Kirwan
March 4 2003

The Blues look in good shape, sitting fifth from top with 42 points on the board. The primary objective of safety has been achieved and now attention turns to efforts for a UEFA Cup (or possibly Champions League!) spot...

In the preview to last nights game against Bolton I said that I felt Everton had to overcome such sides if they were to even consider sneaking into a UEFA Cup spot. But I don’t believe that many would have thought that the Blues would find it such easy going against a Bolton side fighting for survival. Sam Allardyce had targeted the home games as the matches from which he expected points, and I expected a battling Bolton performance that would make life difficult for Everton. But the Blues got the lead and held on comfortably for the 3 points, despite conceding a scrappy goal in the last minute.

The 3 points puts us above the ‘magical’ 40-point mark, and puts us in a solid position to challenge for Europe. If the Blues keep performing well at Goodison, and beat the poorer sides in the league such as West Brom, Fulham and Liverpool then we won’t be far off a top-six finish.

Alan Irvine reacted to the win by praising Steve Watson;

“Steve is capable of doing something different when he’s in and around the box. He’s a good finisher and he scores plenty of goals in training.

He’s made no secret of the fact that he doesn’t see himself as a right-back anymore and as a wide midfielder he is capable of scoring goals. He’s got terrific technique and he’s an inventive finisher – he can get spectacular goals, tap-ins and headers.”

Strange how Steve Watson looks a lot more dangerous when playing on the right flank than when Smith was forced into playing him as an emergency striker. Carsley did well playing on the right side of midfield, but you only have to look at last night’s game and previous matches against Man City and Southampton away last season to see that Watson is quite an accomplished finisher. His opener last night will rival Rooney’s goals against Leeds and Arsenal for Everton’s goal of the season, Watson remarked,

“Brian (McBride) won a good header and I had no option really, other than to have a pop. If I’m being truthful, I probably didn’t expect to catch it quite so well but I was delighted to see it sail over the keeper. I was pleased with the second one too, even though it was a lot easier.”

The Blues will be looking to make it 3-in-a-row with a win against dirty Leeds on Saturday, and with relatively easy games around the corner perhaps Moyes can lead the team on another victorious run of matches. With the likes of Rooney, Campbell, Yobo, Gravesen, Hibbert, Pembridge, and Carsley (all of whom have played excellently this season) likely to have to settle for spells on the bench, the Blues shouldn’t struggle with fitness towards the end of the season. How about a win against Man Utd to stop them winning the title, and to seal our Champion’s league spot last day of the season?!