NO strikers? No problem. A record-equalling triumph ensured Everton’s travels for 2008 ended in the same way they began with three points at the Riverside.
The industrial, unwelcoming setting of a chilly, dismal Middlesbrough is perhaps the least anticipated trip in any supporters’ fixture calendar.
So having begun the year by seeing their team secure a 2-0 win on Teesside on New Year’s Day, it was a touch unfair on Everton fans to spend Boxing Day at the same venue.
Yet a typically timely Tim Cahill strike made that festive effort worthwhile as David Moyes notched another landmark in his Goodison Park reign.
This victory means Everton matched their previous record of 11 away league wins in a calendar year, a feat first achieved in 1984 and equalled 12 months later when three more matches were played on the road on each occasion.
Indeed, the last time the Goodison outfit won seven away games at this stage of the season, they claimed the championship in 1969-70.
Their lamentable home form means there’s no chance of a repeat this season. But Everton’s magnificent showing on their travels – only Chelsea have won more away Premier League games this season – has maintained hope of European qualification; Everton stand sixth this morning.
As at Manchester City a fortnight ago, it was Cahill’s aerial threat at set-pieces that proved decisive, the Australian bundling the ball over the line after Boro goalkeeper Ross Turnbull had saved his initial header from Mikel Arteta’s 51st-minute corner.
And the margin of victory should have been greater as Everton made light of their injury problems to overwhelm a Boro side that, on this evidence, seem destined for a lengthy battle against relegation.
The continued lack of a fit striker – Victor Anichebe, still troubled by his back problem, remained an unused substitute yesterday – meant Cahill was once more paired with Marouane Fellaini to form a makeshift forward line.
Cahill, the focal point of the attack, is starting to revel in the role and is once again fulfilling the ‘Johnny on the spot’ tag bestowed upon him by Moyes.
With Leon Osman ruled out by the ankle injury suffered when on the receiving end of John Terry’s red-card tackle on Monday night, Dan Gosling was handed a senior debut on the right of midfield.
It wasn’t wasted.
The 18-year-old, signed from Plymouth Argyle in January, impressed during pre-season and, unfazed by the occasion yesterday, was encouragingly effective and should have finished the game with a goal.
Gosling dragged a first-half shot across the face of goal after being put in behind the Boro defence by a Steven Pienaar pass, and then missed an even better chance after the interval when, stretching to meet Marouane Fellaini’s right-wing cross, he somehow put the ball over the crossbar from inside the six-yard box.
