Fan Preview: Everton vs Birmingham City

Blues return to Merseyside on Sunday chasing an unprecedented 6th straight win in the Premier League. In order to complete that record they will have to overcome a 54 year bogey of no wins at Goodison. David Moyes will not be able to influence where any penalties are taken but watch out for the Ball boys disappearing if the home side go ahead. Blues fans are long used to Mr Moyes and his ‘sharp practice’ but he pales into insignificant compared to the goings on across Stanley Park.

Everton of course had a meaningless Europa Cup tie on Thursday when they fielded a team who should not been out that late at night. Ironically he lost another player (Rodwell) to injury. Both Blues managers, McLeish and Bruce have done this in the past and all that it has done is given up a precious place in a cup competition with no visible benefit in the following League fixture.

Mike McCarthy at Wolves has done a strange thing in playing his reserves at Manchester United and will hopefully pay the penalty with a loss of points on Saturday. I just hope that Alex takes the FA cup tie with Forest seriously and play the unchanged side. After all if 5 straight wins in the Premiership is amazing, 5 wins in the FA Cup will get you to the Final.

Our current position is a triumph for manager Alex McLeish who has had little support from the majority of the fans since his arrival. Personally I have always thought that Alex would become one of football’s great managers. His standing as a player puts him amongst the greats and he has succeeded wherever he has managed. His feat of getting Blues out of the Championship in one season was genius .  He did it using a couple of 35 year old free transfers and a bunch of loanees, only one (Bowyer) of whom has proved good enough for top flight football. The Sullivan legacy was to demand perfection and spend the minimum amount.  Hopefully Alex, under the new owner will be able to manage the club properly.

Everton have been complaining about their injury list of late but fans will be surprised how many familiar faces will be in their line up on Sunday. Everton’s position in the league is something of a surprise and they find themselves in the thick of the relegation dog fight. The main reason for their difficulties is the loss of Lescott and Jagielka. The latter was injured but Lescott was sold after it was clear he didn’t want to play for Everton any more. The loss of an all English centre back pairing is difficult to overcome. Thankfully it’s Blues that have the best home grown pairing now.

As stated before its 54 years since the last win at Goodison but it’s highly unlikely that Blues have gone to this tired old ground in that time with a better chance of gaining a win. Blues have been doing a lot of things that they haven’t done for a long time recently. A win against Moyes’ boys would be a real biggy.

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By Alan Watton

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