Derby 0, Everton 2 - post match analysis

Oct 29 2007 by Chris Beesley, Daily Post

DAVID MOYES returned to the scene of his first Everton away game five-and-a-half years on and while the verdict was the same – another victory for his side – the manner in which it was achieved was very different.

Back in 2002, Everton executed a smash-and-grab 4-3 raid on a mad March afternoon, while yesterday they showed their pedigree to cruise to a 2-0 success which was efficient if not spectacular and kept their opponents at arm’s length.

Derby manager Billy Davies is one of Moyes’s oldest friends in football. The pair have been pals since they first played in the same Glasgow county teams as schoolboys.

Moyes signed for Celtic and Davies for Rangers but they’ve followed similar paths since, sharing a car for two years when they travelled to play for Dunfermline Athletic and both going on to manage Preston North End before realising their Premier League managerial aspirations elsewhere.

In that first away outing for Moyes, his side defeated a Derby outfit who were already on their third manager of the season.

The result proved pivotal in Everton’s revival that term, ensuring they stayed clear of relegation danger, but ultimately the Rams were doomed.

Much has changed since then.

Billy Davies, the Rams’ sixth manager since they were demoted, has got the club back in the top flight, succeeding where his predecessors had failed following half a decade of chopping and changing which saw the East Midlands outfit flirt with relegation to English football’s third tier amid a series of upheavals both on and off the pitch.

Moyes, in contrast, who is now Everton’s longest-serving manager of the past 20 years, has steadily assembled a group of players that he declared last week are the best he’s had since he came to the club – including the group that finished fourth in the Premier League in 2005.

Although an up-and-down start to the season saw Everton go into this match just inside the bottom half of the table after four defeats in their last five Premier League games, they are now just four points adrift of a top-six spot.

Instead of looking over their shoulders and fearing the drop as happened in too many Premier League seasons before Moyes’ arrival, Everton are sitting pretty in Europe as early leaders in Uefa Cup Group A, and if they can avoid a nightmare at Luton Town on Halloween night this Wednesday, they will have progressed to the last eight of a cup competition for the first time in the Scot’s reign.

But Moyes is still hopeful that there’s still much more to come, as he conceded on Friday that he believes Everton should be doing even better.

One of his blueprints for success when taking the job was a desire to bring in more young, hungry players who could play effectively in the high-energy style that both Moyes and the Evertonians demand.

For the most part this has now been achieved with a fresh look to the squad, as opposed to old stagers that characterised the Walter Smith era. Nine of the 11 players that started for the visitors yesterday were Moyes signings.

Those who were already at Goodison when Moyes took over – Lee Carsley and Leon Osman – incidentally both have Derby connections, with the former starting his career at the Rams and the latter at the time still waiting for a first-team breakthrough which would only come after a loan spell at Pride Park in 2004.

Moyes made two changes to the side which defeated Larissa 3-1 on Thursday, with Phil Jagielka replacing suspended right-back Tony Hibbert and record signing Ayegbeni Yakubu restored up front for James McFadden, who dropped to the bench.