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	Everton’s End of Season Review 08/09 - Part 1
Posted by	Written by blargins on 04 Jun : 12:13
Article	F ollowing two good seasons where we finished 6th and 5th respectively, the 08/09 season had many fearing the worst. After a long summer of little activity on the transfer front, despite noises from Bill Kenwright telling us to “watch this space”, all we saw was Andy Johnson leaving and nothing come in. It was only in the final week of the window, after the season had already begun that we saw a little action with players noone had ever heard of before coming in, namely Carlo Nash, Castillo and Lars Jacobsen. Louis Saha was next in the door, and while a quality striker, his love affair with the treatment room hardly had Evertonians hearts going. Then in the final minutes of deadline day, Everton shocked everyone with the signing of a young Belgian international from Standard Liege for a record breaking £15 million. Again, practically unheard of, although many did see him dominate against Liverpool in the CL qualifier, so maybe he would be ok. Despite this record breaking transfer (financed by the sale of our previous record breaking transfer), David Moyes had yet to put pen to paper regarding a new contract. No one knew what was going on, and clearly it unsettled the players as a disastrous start to the season ensured with a 2-3 at home to Blackburn. Things did not look good, the players were not themselves and the first month or two was filled with a catalogue of basic defensive errors which cost us, particularly at home. In fairness, we had a lot of youth in the team due to injuries to key players such as Cahill and Pienaar, but it was the experienced players making the mistakes. I looked a hard season ahead, and David Moyes had already told us not to expect anything greater than perhaps 10th in the table. After the previous two seasons, it looked like everything was going to ebb away. The start of the season continued badly, and it was just our away form that was keeping our heads above water. Further home losses against Portsmouth (0-3) and Liverpool (0-2), along with further dropped points in draws saw the loss of Fortress Goodison. Nothing was going right, nobody was clicking, our form had vanished. An away defeat against Blackburn again saw us out of the League Cup and more misery when we failed at the first hurdle against Standard Liege in the UEFA Cup meant everything worked for last season had gone. Still to this day, how we were drawn against a Champions League side after finishing 5th, while the likes of Man City, only in the UEFA Cup for being a bunch of pansies after having few cards the season before, got unheard of piss easy teams. They were in the league stage, we were not. Finally some good news though. David Moyes put pen to paper and signed a new 5 year contract worth £17 million. It was more of a relief than celebrations and many fet had he signed during the summer, things may have been better. But really no one knows what goes on behind the scenes. Then a 1-1 draw against Man Utd at home was also a major catalyst to turning the season round, as we looked dead and buried at half time. In the second half we came out btter and managed to equalise through Fellaini. A crunching (but fair) tackle on lady boy Ronaldo by Everton skipper Phil Neville got the fans behind the team, and we were unlucky in the end not to win. So things were begining to work. We became more solid at the back and we went on a run that saw us beat Fulham and Bolton 1-0, draw with Boro at home, 1-1 and then after being 1-0 down away to West Ham, we managed 3 goals in 5 minutes to wipe the hammers out. Saha proved the saviour with 2 great goals. We were getting back towards the top as the teams below us kept taking points off each other. No one could put a decent run together. Late November and early December saw set backs and disappointment. A dour performance at Wigan left us losing 1-0, but hope resumed a week later when we defeated Spurs at White Hart Lane again. However, it was the last match to see Yakubu play in blue for the season as a ruptured hamsting ended his campaign. To make matters worse, Saha came on and ended up getting injured as well. He would be out for 2 months. We were in trouble. The next game was at home to Aston Villa. We needed to win. We went 1-0 within a minute, but former Villa fan Joleon Lescott equalised later in the half. A terrible back pass by Jagielka enabled Ashley Young to come in and make it 2-1 to Villa but Everton still continued playing the better controlled football. You see, Mikel Arteta had been moved from the wing, where he had been ineffective for much of the season, and was now controlling things from the centre. In the final minute, Lescott equalised with a stunning volley and players and fans alike went ballistic. We had rescued a point! No. We hadn’t. Straight from the kick off, Villa came straight at Everton again, and Ashley Young managed to skip past Lescott’s challenge, and shoot past a helpless Howard. Villa had won. Evertonians were gutted. Truely gutted. Not only had we lost to our closest rivals in a game we dominated, the reality of losing our best two strikers was evident. The rest of the season would surely be a struggle now. Part 2 to come tomorrow, or you can click here and read it now.
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COMLAN_99

Everton’s End of Season Review 08/09 - Part 1 Bainsey's Physio 05 Jun : 15:20 COMLAN_326
COMLAN_194	Nice part 1, when's the 2nd arriving? :thumbsup:

Everton’s End of Season Review 08/09 - Part 1 .ToM. 08 Jun : 03:46 COMLAN_326
COMLAN_99: 11 COMLAN_145 31 Jan : 13:59	good summary, i think everyone was fearing the worst at the start of the season. The West Ham away game was a specail match, they way in which we played rubbish all game and in the final 7 minutes we score 3. Brilliant. COMLAN_313: Merseyside

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