Wigan v Everton comment: David Moyes’s men freeze as chance to catch up lost

Nov 25 2008 by Chris Beesley, Liverpool Daily Post

Moyes’s men freeze as chance to catch up lost

TIM CAHILL’S agonising miss in stoppage time summed up Everton’s inability to take a golden opportunity when it is presented to them.

With none of the top half of the Premier League winning over the weekend, here was a chance for David Moyes’s side to make ground on their rivals and climb within a point of Arsenal and two points of Aston Villa and a Champions League place.

But as seems to happen too many times with Everton when they get a sniff of stealing a march on those around them, they freeze.

During the 2004/05 season, just a week after they’d produced one of their most memorable displays in years to win 3-1 at Aston Villa, Moyes’s men could have built an near-unassailable lead in the battle for fourth place.

However, what followed was one of the dreariest ever excuses for a Premier League football match as Everton – without a shot on target during the entire 90 minutes – slumping to a 1-0 loss at home to an equally uninspiring Blackburn Rovers.

Fortunately for Moyes that year, his team held out to clinch a Champions League spot but given the topsy-turvy nature of English football’s top flight this season there is little margin for error.

Curiously, if Everton could have avoided defeated last night they would have enjoyed the longest current unbeaten run in the Premier League but such is the closeness in the table beyond the title contenders, their conquerors Wigan are now breathing down their necks a mere three points behind them.