Victory typified the spirit at Goodison

Feb 14 2006 By Mark Lawrenson, Daily Post

IF ever a victory typified the spirit at Everton, it was Saturday's battling success over Blackburn Rovers.

Reduced to 10 men by Iain Turner's sending off, the players - and the crowd - were galvanised into a spirited response.

Turner was hard done by after being dismissed on his Premiership debut. He should only have been sent off if he prevented a goalscoring opportunity, but the ball would have hit his legs anyway so it is difficult to assert he changed the course of play.

It was almost an instinctive reaction to put his hands down to the ball. But his exit brought exactly the right kind of reaction as Everton battled and scrapped to a deserved win.

They can play their football when they need to, but Everton are a very difficult side to play against when they are in the right mood. That might have been missing earlier in the year and David Moyes has admitted it took the home-grown players longer to come to terms with the European disappointments.

A combination of the early exits from Europe after working so hard to get there last season, the blending in of the new players, the unfortunate Villarreal result when a refereeing decision put paid to their hopes and injuries to key players all undermined the start to the season.

The 1-1 league draw with Chelsea was a definite turning point as the team remembered what could be achieved by all working hard for each other and since then, even though there have been some bad results against the likes of Bolton and West Brom, Everton have battled to ensure these remain blips rather than a full-blown crisis.

It also goes to show how wrong all those people crying about Moyes losing the dressing room were.

Moyes has chosen this time to make comments about how his displeasure with officials and the game's rulers. Perhaps he wanted to say these things when the team was winning so it did not smack of sour grapes, but it is an area in which you have to be careful how you make your comments, especially when the adrenaline is running high.

Master tactician and motivator O'Neill is the right choice >>>