Everton Away Lost 2 – 0
Maybe no sector of society does sentiment as much as sport, and no sport as much as football; within the football world, the city of Liverpool does it more than most, and the blue half always more than the red, even before Anfield became a tourist trap. Thus Everton went seriously overboard for the last men’s game at Goodison Park – crikey, they’re not even knocking it down. Making your way to the ground in the usual just-in-time way was like walking round Rio or New Orleans on Ash Wednesday morning as the fan party dispersed while the atmosphere within can only be described as electric, causing thoughts of a repeat of those seven and eight goal defeats from four or five decades ago. Saints lined up with a similar formation as against Manchester City but injured Bednarek was replaced by Wood, Ugochukwu made way for Aribo and Sulemana seemed to play further forward. The plan must have been to survive until the passion begam to subside and take advantage of adrenaline withdrawal effects but we managed just five minutes, and that only thanks to a sharp Ramsdale save. Then Sulemana and Fernandes, not for the first time, weren’t strong enough to retain possession as the middle bank of four was breached and Wood failed to block from the backline as Ndiaye more or less sidefooted in. Everton captain Coleman came into the game injured and lasted less than 20 minutes: cue more sentimentality with an early substitution but it also seemed to let Saints have a toehold in the game for the first time – nevertheless Beto should have scored twice and the net was hit two more times before VAR ruled out changes to the scoreline before the half moved into added time. That was almost up when Sulemana failed to do the sensible thing with the ball on the halfway line and Everton broke for Ndiaye to score eventually with ease. Everton weren’t exactly on the beach for the second half but their heads seemed to be planning their post-match celebrations as there wasn’t the same intensity in their play, although poor final passes let them down on breakouts. Southampton’s usual 60th minute substitutions for once led to an improvement, even if Stewart and Archer’s total two Premier League goals between them promised little. Stewart, though, soon forced our first save of the match while, late on, Archer was only denied what might have been the last men’s goal on the ground by Pickford’s save – shame (yes, all fans have that vindictive streak). Harwood-Bellis had to be replaced on 82 minutes so Sandu debuted for the last knockings on the ground. We left as the celebrations began, so an easy getaway from Goodison, a ground with few happy memories for Saints.
Excellent view from this seat
Three LSSC Man of the Match candidates for you to choose from:
4. Flynn Downes. If only the four others in front of the back five showed his level of concentration.
14. James Bree. Two weeks running you’ve had the chance to vote for him!
30. Aaron Ramsdale. MotD were a bit harsh saying he could have done better with the second goal.
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