Jaded

Everton 3 - Manchester United 1
Scorers
Everton: Bilyaletdinov (19), Gosling (76), Rodwell (90)
Manchester United: Berbatov (16)

Team: Van der Sar, Brown, Evans, Neville, Evra, Carrick, Fletcher, Park (Obertan 66), Valencia (Owen 80), Barbatov (Scholes 66), Rooney

Terrible result, but considering just how jaded we looked, you can be thankful that we didn't lose by a larger margin. We were second best on the pitch for practically the entire game. Everton was just hungrier, as simple as that.

We didn't have the brightest start but yet took the lead thru Berbatov who reacted the fastest to a deflected Valencia cross from the right. Yet almost immediately, Bilyaletdinov levelled the score with a wonder strike that left Van der Sar stranded.

The match at midweek against Milan took it's toil on our players. Ferguson probably did his best to rotate the squad, but you could tell our key players like Rooney, Fletcher, Evans and Evra probably looked exhausted. The normal energy level was severely lacking and it was a matter of time before Everton took the initiative.

Midway thru the second half, I was commenting to Kentona that we'd be lucky to come away with a point. Everton were just the better team, and looked more dangerous. Their counters had more purpose and more direct, compared to our laboured effort just to break their backline. It wasn't that we didn't try, we just weren't up to the task. Our normal movement in the box was lacking. Partly due to Berbatov's lack of effort, partly due to Carrick having one of those games where he decides to be Mr Invisible. Fletcher and Rooney were doing double time and towards the last third of the game, they looked visibly knackered.

As a result, Gosling scored from a quick counter and Rodwell iced it for Everton in the dying minutes to seal an unlikely but well-deserved victory for the Toffeemen.

It's hard to blame the men in red on such a day. Just in my previous post, I was worrying about the lack of rest for our players and today, it's come to fruitation. Too many games in too short a period, and to make matters worse, we just didn't have to quality to rely on from the bench. At the time of writing this, Chelsea is already 2 up against Wolves and look likely victors.

Things are going to get alittle worse for us as we have another game coming up on Tuesday against West Ham, followed by the mickey mouse cup final against Villa at the weekend. Thick and fast, that's how our schedule looks. We can't afford to lose more ground, yet at the same time, we need to find time to rest our key players to prevent anther game like this from happening. All I can say is that I'm glad I'm not Ferguson. While he's probably having headaches finding a solution, I'm having migraines just thinking of it.