A lucky start, and I’ll take it! (w/ highlights)

By: David | August 17th, 2008

Ok, so the goal was soooo offside you wouldn’t believe!

Steven Warnock’s last minute free-kick was headed onto the post by captain Nelsen who was miles offside (and hence unmarked).

Nicely for us, Andre Ooijer was on hand to tap in and secure a 3-2 victory at Everton. What a great start for the new boss!

David Dunn ran the game – maybe it was his return to the no.8 shirt – and opened the scoring midway through the first half with a screamer of a goal. Rovers continued to dominate the first half and Santa Cruz missed two headers that you would have backed him to score – they were ‘his’ kind of goals.

Unfortunately our new keeper didn’t have the best of days. Mikel Arteta’s freekick to the side of the 18 yard box was brilliantly curled into the net when everyone expected a cross, but in fairness Robbo didn’t even seem to have considered a shot and should have had it covered. He also looked dodgy on a few crosses, and this won’t have done his confidence any good. This is annoying since I’m sure his form will correlate with his confidence.

Into the second half and Yakubu scored for Everton by heading in Arteta’s cross (I would eat celery to have Arteta in our team!). However Santa Cruz capitalised on some awful defending to equalise 2 minutes later by latching onto Warnocks long ball.

Ooijer’s winner was a dramatic end to a good match. We beat a very good (albeit injury ravaged team) away from home and several of our players, especially Dunn and Pedersen, looked good.

Final thoughts:

- Despite being huge and possessing clear brute strength, Chris Samba seems to be a bit timid when tussling with big forwards. He struggled last year against Dean Ashton a lot, and Yakubu seemed to give him more problems than he should have.

- Gamst Pedersen was back with the latter of his surnames on the back. I have a feeling he plays better with it that way. Is on some kind of rotation system though?

- As I’ve said, Dunn was impressive. His grabbing of the no.8 shirt and appointment as vice-admiral suggests he will be first choice in midfield and this performance seems to justify that.

- The Axe can’t pass. The upcoming signing of Vince Grella will demote him to the bench and not a moment too soon. However his tackling could be handy as a sub to defend tight leads.

- Reid was decent on the right and him being there freed up Pedersen (with an ‘e’ Jim! ). Roberts was decent but I think McCarthy might do better.