Everton 1, Birmingham 1: Alarm bells replace sleighs bells as Goodison winless run continues

Dec 21 2009 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

IF Thursday gave Goodison a glimpse of the future, then yesterday came the grim reality of the present. Home comforts, so hard to find for Evertonians this season, again remain elusive after Birmingham City became the latest visitors to enjoy the hospitality of David Moyes’s men.

Speaking before the game, Moyes had revealed his frustration that Everton were no longer being mentioned as a contender to break into the top four.

Yet their current run of form suggests it’s the bottom four that should be of far greater immediate concern to the Goodison manager.

Small wonder. This depressing draw means Everton have won just one of their last 11 Premier League games and will go into the festive period in 16th place, potentially just a solitary point above the relegation zone.

Not such a happy Christmas. And there has been precious little for the paying home supporters to be cheery about during the past two months.

Since defeating Blackburn Rovers on September 20, Everton have gone eight games without a home win – their worst such run since May 1972 and only one game shy of their longest-ever sequence without a Goodison triumph set in 1957.

There was more of the same yesterday, when the platform of Diniyar Bilyaletdinov’s fifth-minute strike was frittered away in front of an increasingly agitated home faithful.

Matters, of course, may have been somewhat different had Louis Saha’s strike not been incorrectly chalked off moments after the opener, particularly with Everton still buoyed by their morale-boosting 3-3 draw at Chelsea the previous weekend.

But from the moment Sebastian Larsson equalised against the run of play midway through the first half, self-doubt and lack of confidence crept further into Everton’s efforts the longer the game progressed.

Yes, Moyes’s side enjoyed plentiful possession. But Birmingham goalkeeper Joe Hart had barely a save to make as the home threat petered out against a superbly-organised visiting back-line for whom centre-back pairing Scott Dann and Roger Johnson excelled.

As Moyes later accepted, Everton are suffering a shortfall in guile, missing the final killer pass that could unlock the packed defences that are finding it too easy to turn up at Goodison and return home with some reward.

Following his well-taken goal, Bilyaletdinov was curiously anonymous, leaving Steven Pienaar and the impressive Leighton Baines to shoulder the creative burden.

And the harsh fact is that if Saha is not firing on all cylinders, Everton struggle to find the net. The Frenchman has netted 10 league goals this season – the rest of the team between them have only managed 11.

With Jack Rodwell, hamstrung early on when among the youngsters to face BATE Borisov on Thursday, joining flu victim Jo in the treatment room, there were two changes from the team at Stamford Bridge. Yet there were also signs on the teamsheet that the injury list is at last starting to clear. Having played 81 minutes on his return to action in midweek, Leon Osman made his first league appearance since the home draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers on October 17.