Everton 2 - 1 Spurs

The away fans at Goodison Park are shoved underneath a stand where you can’t see the rest of the stadium and gave four poles obscuring myour view. The tickets warned against persistent standing, but the ancient wooden seats are not suitable for persistent sitting.

Harry Redknapp made a number of like-for-like changes. William Gallas, Jermaine Jenas and Peter Crouch replaced Sébastien Bassong, Wilson Palacios and Roman Pavlyuchenko.

Two and a half minutes in Gallas stood off Louis Saha and his weak shot somehow evaded Heurelho Gomes and found its way into the bottom corner. One down is a position Spurs are used to coming back from this season and seven minutes later we pulled level in familiar fashion. Crouch nodded an Alan Hutton cross across the box and Rafael van der Vaart headed in.

Gareth Bale and Benoît Assou-Ekotto played second fiddle on a flank dominated by Seamus Coleman, but Everton’s forward line, Jermaine Beckford in particular, couldn’t convert their chances.

The first half ended brightly for Spurs – Van der Vaart came close with a speculative overhead kick and a free-kick and Crouch had the ball in the net after Bale’s turn of pace and ball across the box. Unfortunately Crouch had strayed offside.

The half-time entertainment was a bizarre moneymaking exercise. A digitally animated Everton mascot played out a penalty shoot out with a Spurs equivalent – the results based on how many £1-a-go texts were sent.

On the hour, Bale, who’d been scythed down by Phil Neville, was replaced by Niko Kranjcar. Kranjcar struggled to have any kind of impact on the game. It would be unfair and unrealistic to expect him to go straight into the team and win the match singlehandedly. It looked like someone would have to, because as a team we lacked ideas and looked tired. Four games in a week and a half (two with 10 men) finally taking its toll.

Coleman shot straight at Gomes after an excellent run and Van der Vaart came close getting a shot away with the ball under his feet. Crouch has a fantastic effort. He won the ball, got it back from Van der Vaart and a couple of step-overs later cut inside and forced Tim Howard to save a good strike.

But Everton’s winner was deserved. With a quarter of an hour to go Saha got a shot away despite Assou-Ekotto and Michael Dawson in front of him. Gomes parried and Coleman, who’d reacted quicker than Jenas, headed in the winner.

The match ended on a bit of a sour note for me, having to listen to Spurs fans shouting expletives at their own players. Criticism is fair enough, but calling Crouch, who incidentally was one of our best players, a ‘piece of shit’ and worse is shameful. It was our first defeat in 12 games, but I suppose that was lost on some people.