Fan Scene: Some questions still need answering

Oct 5 2007 COMMENT by Mark O'Brien

WHERE do you begin after a night like that? If Everton had failed to make it through last night then there would have been a long inquest and some searching questions asked about the players and David Moyes.

Well, despite the relief and the jubilation that have greeted the result, maybe those questions still need answering.

In the first half the Blues made the yellow-shirted Metalist look even more like Villarreal, the way they allowed them to walk through the midfield and expose Alan Stubbs and Joseph Yobo at the back.

For long periods Stubbs looked finished as a player; Yobo like he’s never started. Even the first half in Bucharest wasn’t as bad as that. A second-half collapse like the one a year ago in Romania didn’t look out of the question at the interval either.

Thankfully we got out of jail thanks to Tim Howard, Joleon Lescott, James McFadden and Victor Anichebe. It was far too close for comfort though, and although we all accept it’s only by facing adversity that you have the drama that makes football so infectious, you have to worry about how Everton are going to cope if they come up against some opposition that people have actually heard of in the group stage.

Lessons have to be learned, as we are unlikely to be so lucky again. In the league as well as in the UEFA Cup we still need to settle on our best team and formation and then make the opposition worry about us, not vice versa.

It obviously doesn’t help when you pay millions for the likes of Aiyegbeni Yakubu and Phil Jagielka only for them to be, on what we’ve seen so far, not as good as the players already at the club.

Maybe it seems a bit po- faced, getting all aerated after a glorious fightback that will live long in the memory, but for too long that performance was painful and embarrassing.

However, we are through, and that’s the main thing. Continued participation in Europe means there’s still the prospect of a bit of romance and mystery during the rest of the season.

Many more games like these two against the impressive Kharkiv though, and many Evertonians will start to wonder whether the strain on their hearts is worth it!