Everton 1-1 Birmingham City

[toffeebhoy]

regardless of their recent form and our injury list i feel this is a game we need to bag the 3 pts on to statr tryin to put some distance between us and the btm and to build on our own recent return to gettin results froma game

 

[smallheathalliance]

regardless of their recent form and our injury list i feel this is a game we need to bag the 3 pts

I've seen this comment quite a lot on Everton forums over the last few days, do you not think that you are in danger increasing the pressure on your players to a point where they feel unable to perform.

We have been a solid team this year and are in a amazing run of form, as a Blues fan I am expecting it to go tits-up at any moment but I find it odd that fans of other teams still expect to just turn up and collect the three points. You might beat us on Sunday but you'll have to work bloody hard to do it.

 

[Rook]

Hi guys, Birmingham City fan here (If you didnt already guess from the username)

I was interested in reading some of your views,it seems the majority of you believe Birmingham are in for a tonking this sunday, which could prove your downfall as many fans have wrote us off this season before they've played us..

Im going for 1-1, maybe even 2-1 Birmingham ... Purely because of the Everton injury list which has unfairly seen your side without a lot of key players, against our recent fine run of form..

And to answer your previous questions our CB's are Roger Johnson and Scott Dann, two cracking players, they'll bring down everything out the air all day, and to the guy that mentioned Carsley, theres not even a slim chance he will start ... Maybe if were holding out for a result he might make a 10 minute cameo at the end of the game, but he wont start the game...

Im looking forward to coming to Goodison Park, its a ground ive wanted to visit for some time, hopefully the atmosphere will be good and we see a great game of football..

Good luck for the season guys, but only after Sunday

Haven't seen Brum this year but they are playing well and I think they have some real talent on their team (Before the season I thought you'd come close to breaking Reading's goal record in the Championship last year).

Luckily we've played well over the past 2 matches, unfortunately we only have 2 pts to show for it. You'll defo be tough to score on and well with our defensive deficiences I think you at least get a goal on us.

How's Faddy doing? When he was here I thought the Prem was a bad fit for him and he'd be much better in a slower paced, techinal league like Spain (which is why he's a better international player).

Prediction 1-1.

 

[smallheathalliance]

How's Faddy doing? When he was here I thought the Prem was a bad fit for him and he'd be much better in a slower paced, techinal league like Spain (which is why he's a better international player).

He's doing well at the moment after a tough season in the championship, the lad's certainly got talent but I think he needs plenty of space to display it. It's no coincidence that our current spell of form has coincided with us having two pacey strikers up front spreading the play and allowing McFadden the room to be creative.

 

[ToxtethBlue]

McFadden used to hate playing on the wing for us, he always saw himself as striker/second striker.

Good to see he's getting first team football, the lad clearly had ability in terms of technique and skill, it was his decision making and lack of intelligence that let him down at Everton.

But I suppose that improves with experience and playing first team football week in week out. Carsley looks past it, but to be honest, he was past it at Everton is his later years.

I see Barry Ferguson's doing very well, proving alot of doubters wrong.

 

[TheDevils2001]

Hi guys, Birmingham City fan here (If you didnt already guess from the username)

I was interested in reading some of your views,it seems the majority of you believe Birmingham are in for a tonking this sunday, which could prove your downfall as many fans have wrote us off this season before they've played us..

Im going for 1-1, maybe even 2-1 Birmingham ... Purely because of the Everton injury list which has unfairly seen your side without a lot of key players, against our recent fine run of form..

And to answer your previous questions our CB's are Roger Johnson and Scott Dann, two cracking players, they'll bring down everything out the air all day, and to the guy that mentioned Carsley, theres not even a slim chance he will start ... Maybe if were holding out for a result he might make a 10 minute cameo at the end of the game, but he wont start the game...

Im looking forward to coming to Goodison Park, its a ground ive wanted to visit for some time, hopefully the atmosphere will be good and we see a great game of football..

Good luck for the season guys, but only after Sunday

Fans always seem to feel there team had a better chance of winning, it's normal I feel the same with Everton I simply don't believe you had any chance against us on Sunday, not saying we going to win by a large margin, but 2-0 or 3-1 is certainly a possiblities.

I would be honest if you were playing us 3~4 weeks ago I did see you getting a result against us, but after a brave performance against Spurs and Chelsea, confidence are restore to a point where we are not afraid of anyteam outside the current Top 5 in the league.

Injure are not as big as the problem compare to few weeks ago, yes indeed Yobo, Distin, Jagielka are all out, but we still have Neill, Heitinga, Baines, Coleman, Duffy and Hibbert, which is more than enough to form a defence line-up to cope with almost any team in the league, if Heitinga and Neill could cope with Chelsea attack up to certain extent, then I don't see we did have too much trouble from Birmingham.

Although Arteta, Neville, Gosling & Rodwell are not available at the moment, but we still have Pienaar, Billy, Cahill, Fellaini, Osman & Baxter who are more than good enough to form a midfield line which has creativity, height, attacking instinct & defensive capability, which are good enough to create scoring opportunity against Spurs and Chelsea, so, I don't see why we an't do it to Birmingham as well.

As for Striker do I need to say it, Saha who has already scored 10 league goals already, Yakubu who is slowly regaining fitness and sharpness and is already a proven goal scorer, Jo who is fully capable of scoring goal but seem to do better in providing final ball for the others and Agard who has the pace to cause problem to the opposition in the last 20~30 mins of the game.

I don't see what all the fuss about us in injure crisis and you guys would beat us, we might not have all our top player available, so our strength is weaken in that sense, but certainly fully capable of beating any team outside Top 5.

 

[BirminghamCityBoy]

Our back four has already dealt with alot of players that were deemed to cause us all sorts of trouble, we played Sunderland at the height of their form just off the back of them drawing with Man U and beating Liverpool (Which im sure you all loved with the beachball incident ), and everyone was raving about Darren Bent's form, and our 2 CB's made Bent and Kenwyn Jones look like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum... They made swift work of Santa Cruz, Tevez and Bellamy, and the fact that weve conceded such a little amount of goals in comparision to alot of teams is a huge reflection of the fact our back four is not afraid of any striking partnership in this league, no matter how good their strike rate is...

 

[Goat]

Your fall will be mighty.

See City, Hull.

 

[BirminghamCityBoy]

And for the people asking about Faddy he is doing well, already scored 2 match-winners for us this season and had it not been for a great penalty save from Shay Given, it would have been 3...

He is being put out on the left wing at the moment, near the start of the season he kept drifting back central during games because thats where he felt comfortable, but as the season has progressed he has started to become more settled down out on the left, and when he gets the chance to cut in, he is more then capable of taking on a few players, getting a shot off or playing through a killer ball...

I think the only qualm I have with him is that sometimes he will go past 2 men, and instead of laying it off to someone in a better position he will keep on going in the hope of creating a wonder-goal, but sometimes when we look flat its good to see someone having a go...

He is a magical player on his day though as im sure I dont need to tell you lot, and just for the record that goal he scored against Charlton in the dying minutes when he dinked it over the defender and put it in the bottom right corner is one of my favourite goals of all time

 

[Lien]

All the best for the season BCB - where do you think you'll finish this season realistically?

As for the game, I'm sticking with my prediction of a hard-fought 2-1 win. Moyes will have us fired up for this one as he knows how important it is, whereas I don't think it's a particularly important game for yourselves. Even with our injuries, it'll be the hardest game you've had on your recent run, and I can see us edging it.

 

[Fletch]

Tough game this, watched Brum on the TV and they are solid at the back but think with home support we can win it 1-0.

David Moyesltoe

Steven Pientree

Tim Howay in a manger

 

[Dublintoff]

I agree to an extent with lien, i think our players will just want to win this one more than birmingham. Our players know its a must win and while that brings its own pressure it also brings more desire. Birmingham players have overachieved of late and while the confidence they will have will allow them to play with freedom, when push comes to shove in this game, i think our will to win will come out on top.

2-0 saha, fella

 

[BirminghamCityBoy]

Thanks for all your opinions and views, I appreciate it...

I agree that it is more important for you to win rather than us given both our teams expectations and targets for this season, but I dont think complacency will be a problem..

I think if there is going to be a deciding factor to this game it would probably be the home support, had this been at St.Andrews I think we would have had a much better chance, as weve only lost two games at home this season and they were both by a 1 goal deficit each time, and proper stupid goals to concede aswell...

What did you lot make of your Europa League loss last night? I hope that Duffy lad dont feel too gutted with the slight deflection as he did well earlier in the game to clear from the chance where Howard rushed out...

Your club has a cracking youth system which speaks for itself with the biggest success being of course Wayne Rooney, for those of you that went to the game was you happy seeing the youth get a run out even if they didnt quite win the game?

I remember your Right0back Seamus Coleman had a trial at Birmingham going back a few years but he was deemed not good enough, im not sure who the manager was at the helm to make that decision, he looked quality against Spurs...

Thanks again

 

[ChicagoToffee]

Hello there, Birmingham fan coming in peace. Just thought I would head here for some views from the Everton side ahead of our game this weekend.

I think it will be a close game, at the moment we are punching above our weight in 6th which is a shocking thing for me to say, while I hope you won't be upset by saying everton are under achieving this season although showed some good form recently and it's hardly surprising your position with the amount of injuries to key players you have had.

I think on paper you are a much stronger side but like I say you are suffering from a few injuries especially at the back, which for our sake I hope we can exploit. Of course up front you have quality in players such as Saha, Cahill, Yakubu and Jo.

Finally I'll just say to look out on Sunday for our two centre halfs would be interested to see your views on them but they have been stunningly good this year for us. I'll take a sneaky punt on 2-1 to Blues but like I say would like to here some of your views on the match.

I'll be there on Sunday staying with some everton supporting reletives, I lok forward to seeing you all at the game!!

Welcome.

Admit I haven't watched alot, if any, of Brum this season - not a regular on US televison. Regardless, I'd have to agree that you're punching above your weight and Everton are below expectations.

2-2 draw. Everton are improving form wise but still revving up at the moment. You're 6th for a reason hence the draw.

 

[TheDevils2001]

Everton (from): Howard, Hibbert, Baines, Coleman, Neill, Heitinga, Bilyaletdinov, Rodwell, Pienaar, Fellaini, Osman, Jo, Saha, Yakubu, Nash, Duffy, Agard, Akpan, Mustafi.

Although Rodwell is listed but scan result is not out and I fully expect him out of Birmingham game and may be Sunderland as well, and here would be a line-up I want to see:-


------------------------ Howard ----------------------

--- Coleman --- Neill --- Heitinga --- Baines -----

--- Pienaar --- Osman --- Fellaini --- Bilyaletdinov ---

------------------------ Cahill -------------------------

------------------------ Saha ----------------------


This is what I want to see but Moyes would put Hibbert in RB, it's not as though we are playing Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea or RS, surely Coleman could just about cope with Birmingham, it would be a great learning experience!