Just watched through the match on Sky Plus, second half was one of the best contested derbies in recent years i thought. That was down to the tension and the ineptitude of both sides at times. Some of the players on that pitch were simply atrocious- Sissoko was appalling, Yakubu was a joke.
First half i felt that if we'd have got the first goal then we'd have won comfortably, Voronin missed a really good chance and Gerrard took a bad touch when he was in a good position. But then Everton started hammering us down our right hand side through Lescott, and in all honesty the goal was coming- shame for Sami cos i thought he had a good game.
Course the game turned on the penalty incident, i think Hibbert was stupid in what he did. There's no doubt Gerrard had the run on him but it was no certainty that he would score, Hibbert definitely pulled him back, he didnt need to, and he can have no complaints with the red card imo. Not too sure what to make of the yellow card/red card bit, we've seen referees do things like that before (eg Essien at Anfield earlier this season) and until we hear from Clattenburg why he did it its hard to comment. Gerrard had obviously said that he was in a goalscoring position, and having given the penalty I think it had to be a red card.
Kuyt was very rash and very lucky to stay on. I can sort of understand what he was doing, expecting the ball to be cleared high and trying to charge it down, but travelling at that pace it was a damn dangerous thing to do and he was lucky to get away with it, and i guess lucky that people know he isnt a dirty player (if that had been Joey Barton or someone i think it might have been red). Personally i dont think Finnan on Lescott is a penalty, if they are being given then there would be ten/fifteen penalties a game i'm afraid, and Lescott was being very smart by backing in.
Performance wise second half we created a fair few chances, Sissoko & Voronin missed a few, Kuyt headed a sitter over the bar and had one blocked on its way in. I was a bit gutted for Lucas that he never got the winner cos of Steptoe's fine reflex save, but credit Kuyt for his balls and his composure (esp to put it in the same corner), Howard prob should have saved it as well. i was still going mental when they had their second penalty shout, at the time i thought it was typical last minute Goodison appealing for anything, but having seen the replay they can feel very unlucky and Carragher's stupidity went unpunished luckily for him and us.
All in all, a derby with a million talking points, havent had one of them since the Gary Mac derby. Big big win for us. At half time i was distraught, the season looked to be slipping away, but we won- lucky or not- and hopefully this can kick start the league campaign.
Man of the match had to be Mascherano as well, immense that lad is.
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