MARK O'BRIEN: At last, a special Everton occasion to fire the memories

Mar 9 2009 Liverpool Daily Post

THE fireworks going off on County Road said all you need to know about how Evertonians felt at the end of yesterday’s game.

That’s assuming that they were genuine pyrotechnics of course, and not just some of the steadily increasing number of Fellaini wigs spotted around Goodison getting too close to a naked flame.

Even the draw couldn’t dampen Blue spirits, as Joe Royle’s appearance on the telly was cheered and then the first hush of a raucous afternoon descended upon Walton.

Barring Phil Brown’s Hull pulling off another upset at the Emirates, there were no easy teams left in the hat, but still Manchester United are the last one that anyone in Europe wants to face at the moment.

No one complained too much though, because less than a couple of hours earlier, with Middlesborough leading at half-time, the chances of Everton playing anyone at Wembley seemed remote.

As they trudged off, trailing to David Wheater’s header, the Blues looked like a side full of tired, injured players who had been asked to go to the well too many times.

It looked like all the post-match talk would once again be about the man who was missing, Mikel Arteta, as opposed to those out on the pitch. That was, of course, until David Moyes made the only throw of the dice left available to him.

The introduction of Louis Saha, the enigmatic Frenchman brought in to edge tight encounters like these, was the catalyst for a remarkable revival.

Not only did he remind everyone what a talent he is, with an exemplary centre-forward’s performance and the winning goal, perhaps even more crucially he allowed to Tim Cahill to drop back into midfield.

We’d almost forgotten that the Australian made his name in the middle of the park, he’s been operating up front for so long and so effectively for the team, but freed from the attentions of Robert Huth and David Wheater he ran the show in the second half.