QPR 0 - 1 Match Report

When the first proper team news for the season filtered through to the various ale houses, that David Moyes had given a start to young Ross Barkley, a genuine surge of optimism steered its way into many worried Evertonians head. It was almost immediately tempered by the fact that he was playing Beckford on his own up front,with everybody's least favourite defensive midfielder(after Phil Neville that is) Johnny Heitinga in the middle. Presumably then Louis Saha, Mikel Arteta and Marouane Fellaini all failed fitness test's and weren't on the bench? ''No...Really? thats weird...'' Still, it's only QPR, Sean Derry's in the middle for them, c'mon Everton these are shit.



Whether anybody at Goodison should have expected anything different from the players and the manager is questionable. It's tradition though to turn up first day and think about fresh starts and new leaves being turned over. This one came straight out of the beginning of last season's ''deflating shite'' textbook we blotted so handsomely for months. Disjointed, with some good players not knowing where they should be playing and looking like they'd never seen their teammates, nevermind spent half the summer with them dissappointed almost entirely throughout.

The one bright prospect was always going to be Barkley, to put it simply; in a torrent of overpaid, swelling, oceanic sound-bite twittering shite, he shone through like a pooh encrusted beacon(buoy), defiantly gadding about in Goodison's midfield spraying balls about like a latter day Paul Scholes, ignoring the stormy waters around him. Something about his low centre of gravity, his passing ability, his demanding of the ball and his instinctive grasping of responsibility, tells you somehow Evertons academy, yet again, have unearthed another absolute gem of a player.


The winning goal came after half an hour when striking journey man Tommy Smith curled one in at the far post, after some customary early season dawdling from Captain in waiting Jagielka. They passed the ball well QPR, with Sean Derry inexplicably rolling back the years and at the same time metamorphosising into Michael Ballack or someone. A bit like Joey Barton and Kevin Nolan did last year. Remember that? All the fun of the fair down at goodison park.


Adel Taarabt lived up to his billing as some sort mecurial Morrocan Magician, with some exquisite flicks touches and dribbling, whether he gave it the ''jusslikethaa'' routine whilst repeatedly making Phil Neville look like a biff all afternoon is up for debate. Oh for a multibillionaire to finance a move for such a player ''jusswhaweneed''.

Too many players on the day just didnt turn up, Tim Cahill, Phil Neville, Jermaine Beckford and Leon Osman all had days to forget about, truly pitiful performances. Even Leighton Baines, who created our best chance with a caressed free kick hitting the bar in the first half, even he and the high standards he set himself couldnt muster up what was needed to turnover a team at home that will almost certainly struggle all season.


Who knows what the reasons are for yet another bad start to the season, whether it be lack of investment, a gang of knobheads with a sense of entitlement releasing theirs(and our) dirty laundry two days before kick off, or even the nonsensical lack of involvement from our best players, who know how to play in a position(poor Jack Rodwell) from the start of a game. It happened again and its fucking depressing. Still, we can put it all right on a Wednesday night cup tie against a lower tier Sheffield United cant we? Unfortunately, my glass is half empty again.

Who said Evertonians are fickle?