Bilya beauty doesn’t paper over the cracks

Diniyar Bilyaletdinov’s injury time scorcher spared the Blues’ blushes and ensured Moyes’ men ended the season with a win in front of 38,730 at Goodison.

It was a moment of quality that simply didn’t belong in this mind-numbing, end of season clash.

By no means was this a great Everton performance. After an eighth placed finish was confirmed last Saturday at Stoke, it was clear some of the boys in blue were already coated in Ambre Solaire. Without a goal since early February, Louis Saha once again proving the chief culprit.

How Saha even made the eleven based on his showings in the last month or so is any one’s guess. A patron of the Gwladys Street summed it up perfectly on 70: “I forgot Saha was even on the pitch”

After a flurry of early chances inside the first six minutes for the Toffees, it appeared the Blues were set to sign off in style as their manager had demanded in his programme notes. Sad to say, no ruthless Everton goal-glut ensued.

But it was Pompey who enjoyed the half’s best opportunity. Frederic Piquionne raced onto a Boateng through ball and got the better of  Phil Jagielka but Tim Howard blocked  well as he cut inside to shoot.

The second half was more of the same. Good Everton build up, but lacking in substance when it came to the killer ball.

The Blues owed a huge debt of gratitude to the linesman on 59 though. The flag went up for offside when Anthony Vanden Borre turned in Jamie O’Hara’s cross despite the fact Sylvain Distin and Phil Jagielka were both on the Everton line. What’s that we hear about decisions evening themselves out over the course of the season?

Potential embarrassment avoided, the game was drifting towards a dull and frankly meaingless conclusion.

After a tussle with Portsmouth’s “knobhead in the pink”, Louis Saha almost had the last laugh over Jamie Ashdown, but his header was hooked off the line by former Kopite Steve Finnan as Everton pressed for another late winner.

It arrived with practically the last kick of the season at Goodison. Johnny Heitinga dragged it back, centrally, around 30 yards from the Gwladys Street goal. Needing no run up, Bilyaletdinov unleashed a left foot stick of dynamite that nestled high into Ashdown’s top right hand corner.

The Russki’s goal of the season strike against Manchester United in February required some beating, and this rifle certainly ran it very close indeed. It was the perfect way to sign off the season for Bilyaletdinov, who has managed seven goals in his debut campaign in England. Evertonians will be quietly excited bythe glimpses of class displayed this season by the former Moscow man.

So we are left to stew over the if’s and but’s of another wild and at times wonderful season at L4.

What is difficult to forget, and really it is unacceptable, are some of the awful games against awful sides where we have simply tossed the points down the shitter for no other reasons than negativity from the manager and a poor attitude from the players.

And while we were hindered, quite severely, by a freak injury crisis that seemed to take at least one player away each month, when we look at how the games ACTUALLY panned out then it’s difficult not to point the finger and find yourself frustrated.

We have a very capable squad now in place, and provided it is strengthened with one or two additions in the right areas and the Pienaar situation is resolved, there is absolutely no reason why Everton can’t achieve serious success next season. The tools are in place and there will be no excuses to fall back on for David Moyes next season.

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum isn’t just a catchy Latin strapline that sits nicely on our crest, it’s what we as Evertonians SHOULD expect. A downtrodden mentality, celebrating wins over Manchester City and Blackburn, will get us nowhere in the grand scheme of things.

It’d be nice if the players stopped talking of recapturing the club’s former glories, and simply got on with it on the pitch.

That’s what winners do, and who’s to say if the attitude and application is right from the off this group of players won’t be in 2010/11?

Up the Toffees, enjoy your jollies, and all that other phony Summer shite to you all.

Joe Jennings.