SLASH YOUR FIRST-TEAM squad, dispense with your best young player, throw tantrums in the boardroom, alienate your supporters, climb to third in the table: Everton’s blueprint for success is not the most obvious, yet this is their most accomplished start to a season since 1978-79 and the Winter of Discontent. Remarkably, it is almost forgotten that Goodison Park had been expecting another one.
Since the frenzy over Wayne Rooney’s contentious departure for Manchester United, adversity has summoned unfashionable attributes such as grit, unity and determination from the Peoples’ Club. There were bucketloads of the stuff yesterday and certainly too much for a mediocre Middlesbrough side blinded and breathless from last week’s debut in the Uefa Cup.
After Marcus Bent — a striker who cost a sixty-sixth of Rooney’s £30 million transfer fee — scored the only goal in Everton’s fourth victory in five matches, Alan Stubbs attempted to explain the unexplainable.
“Hard work, great bunch of lads, turning all the crap that’s been thrown at us into a positive,” the Everton captain and defender said. Suddenly, it all seemed much clearer; footballers with a point to prove can be devastating.
Middlesbrough believed they had amassed a few of them, but here they appeared slow and bloated by relative comfort, and what they lacked in quality, they also lacked in everything else. Possession was abused or squandered, shots were misplaced, tackles were negligent and, within an hour, Steve McClaren had deployed all three of his allotted substitutes for reasons of tactics, not injury.
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Szilard Nemeth unerringly found touch with every haywire cross from the right wing, Boudewijn Zenden was listless on the left and Mark Viduka endured one of those perplexing afternoons when it was possible to imagine the Australia striker had never previously been acquainted with a ball. All came off and none could complain. “We weren’t good enough,” McClaren said.
Mark Schwarzer was a rarity in that he clambered above the average, saving brilliantly from Kevin Kilbane, who had launched himself at a deep centre from Lee Carsley and scorching from his line when Bent sprinted on to a 40-yard long-ball from Thomas Gravesen. Bent also directed a free header into Schwarzer’s hands, while Gravesen had a shot deflected for a corner.
A foul by Kilbane on Chris Riggott briefly raised Middlesbrough’s hackles — for a while, George Boateng looked a dismissal-in-waiting — but it was only the arrival of Stewart Downing as Zenden’s replacement that gave McClaren’s side a flicker of electricity. The England Under-21 winger, who is surely worthy of a regular place, set up a header for Joseph-Desire Job that Nigel Martyn prodded around the post.
By then, however, their desperation was because of their losing position. In playing one sole recognised centre forward, with Leon Osman buzzing behind pleasingly, Everton have been constructed with caution in mind, but theirs were the better chances. In his fifth start, Bent scored his second goal, having muscled his way beyond Gareth Southgate; Franck Queudrue diverted the shot.
In the final moments, Ray Parlour came closer to pilfering an equaliser and, on the counter-attack, James McFadden again failed to break his duck for Everton. That made sense, if little else did.
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“We had a long old summer,” Moyes said, “and that was mainly because of how we finished last season. I’m not saying we’ve over it — I’m not that daft — but why shouldn’t we enjoy it?” Does he welcome the renewal of expectation? “Not half.”