Lift-off for Souness as Everton slump continues

14 April 2012

Graeme Souness has discovered that a golfing trip to Gleneagles can cure the ills of poor Premiership form. For David Moyes, the answers must be found in the less glamorous surroundings of Everton's training ground.

It was easy to share Souness's satisfaction - not to mention relief - as his Blackburn side found their first win in six Premiership attempts at Ewood Park last night. His is a style of management and a philosophy that deserves to grace the top division for many years to come.

Last night, however, his cause was given ample assistance by an Everton team that contributed an appalling first 45 minutes of football that this morning quite deservedly finds them taking Blackburn's place in the bottom three of the top flight.

Quite what Everton manager Moyes had done to deserve a performance so lacking in intelligence, endeavour and courage is hard to imagine. All he can do now is ensure that it does not happen again, because if it does then it will be a long time before his team show their heads above the top of the relegation zone.

Moyes said: 'All I can say is that the first half was very poor. That's the best way to describe it. Football is about ability, but it is also about work-rate. In the first half it is questionable whether there was any.'

Before last night, Souness was supposed to be the man under pressure, and as Everton lifted themselves a little in the second half, the signs of nerves typical in struggling teams surfaced once again.

But happily for Blackburn, their own efforts and the failings of the opposition had given them a position of strength in the first half and a two-goal advantage that eventually proved good enough.

Souness had responded to five League defeats and a feeling of growing apprehension within his dressing room by taking his players to Scotland for a mini-holiday.

Such policies either work or leave you looking silly, but thankfully for Souness he had his reward within 13 minutes. Three times in that period the Everton defence failed palpably to deal with aerial deliveries and Markus Babbel was the first to profit as he headed his first Blackburn goal past Nigel Martyn in the sixth minute. It was Blackburn's first Premiership goal for 280 minutes and Everton's generosity was to continue.

Babbel headed goalwards again soon after - this time Martyn saved - before Dwight Yorke moved unattended on to Brett Emerton's cross to plant goal No.2 into the net from six yards.

Heaven for Blackburn, soul-destroying for Everton. As Blackburn grew in confidence, Everton lay down. No fight, no mental strength, no nerve. Deposed Leeds manager Peter Reid watched from the stands and he, of all people, must have recognised the symptoms of a team in decline.

In truth, the game should have been over by half-time, but Everton emerged with two new faces and Brad Friedel palmed a James McFadden cross on to Tomasz Radzinski's head in the 49th minute and the game changed.

Suddenly it was Blackburn with butterflies in their stomachs. But they still made chances and twice the impressive substitute Paul Gallagher came close.

But as time wore on so Blackburn began to feel the tension in their legs. Everton pressed hard with aerial football and could have equalised twice. Tobias Linderoth headed inches wide with 15 minutes left before David Unsworth cleared the crossbar when it seemed easier to score.

Sympathy for Everton? Not a bit. They got what they deserved and so did Rovers. Souness said: 'My players dug in and I think we showed in the first half what we can do. We got a bit nervous in the second but it would have been cruel had we not won this game.'

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Lift-off for Souness as Everton slump continues

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