Howard’s dismay at Everton goal robbery

Apr 14 2008 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

UNHAPPY Tim Howard believes Everton’s top-four challenge has been checked by a “robbery” from Birmingham City defender Radhi Jaidi.

The Goodison outfit were held to a 1-1 draw at the relegation-threatened Midlanders on Saturday.

Joleon Lescott had set David Moyes’s side on their way with his ninth goal of the season in the 78th minute only for on-loan forward Mauro Zarate to strike a fantastic free-kick five minutes later.

Substitute Zarate had only been on the field for seven minutes when he curled in the equaliser from 20 yards after Lee Carsley was adjudged to have handled.

But Howard claims the free-kick should have been retaken because Birmingham defender Jaidi was distracting him while standing in an offside position.

“I tried to draw the referee’s attention to what he was doing,” said Howard. “If you want my personal opinion, I don’t think the referees and linesmen in the Premier League are going to have enough gumption to disallow a goal on the basis of that.

“They probably should do. He’s in an offside position and he’s interfering with me, but that’s for the referee to make that call, and I wouldn’t bet on them making that.

“I suppose it’s ungentlemanly conduct in a way, but he got away with it. The guy who robs a bank, if you don’t catch him then he keeps the money.

“He was in my line of sight. You try and see the ball as early as you can from the different angles.”

Jaidi revealed the inspiration for his intervention came from his time at Bolton Wanderers.

“I saw the keeper was a bit frustrated and so I thought I could maybe affect his concentration,” he said. “It's something we used to do at Bolton – Kevin Nolan did it all the time. I learned it from him I suppose.

“Nolan did it a lot and we scored a lot of goals from free-kicks. It's not something I practice on the training ground, I just thought I'd give it a go. But it was a great free-kick – absolute quality. Zarate is young and has a great future.

“Sometimes you need just a flash of quality to come up with a goal like that and we did it.”

Birmingham manager Alex McLeish admitted: “I'd like to say I told Jaidi to jump up and down in front of Howard. But I'm not that clever. I don't know whether it had an effect, you'll have to ask Tim Howard.”

Everton manager Moyes also questioned the equaliser, and said: “I think there was a foul on Yak leading up to it and I am not totally convinced it can be classed as a handball.”

The draw meant Everton missed the chance to put further pressure on Liverpool in the race for fourth place and the final Champions League qualification berth.

The Goodison outfit now stand five points behind their neighbours with only four games remaining.

“We feel a little deflated,” said Howard. “We wanted to get all three points, but we couldn’t do it. We’ve got only ourselves to blame. Now we have to pick ourselves up.”

Howard made a spectacular double save midway through the second half to first repel a Jaidi volley and then claw away McFadden’s angled drive at his near post.

But the American said: “I did okay during the game, but I can’t take that much from it really. Goalkeepers are paid to made saves, and that’s what I did. We didn’t get the result that we wanted, and that hurts. We should have been able to see the game out after Joleon scored.

“Until we’re mathematically out of the race for fourth, we won’t concede it. But this certainly makes it more difficult.”