FA PREMIER LEAGUE: Blackpool 3 Everton 5:IT NEVER rains but it pours. Two-thirds of the way through a season in which Everton's strikers have struggled at times to convince the manager David Moyes, Louis Saha struck four times to end the drought in suitably monsoon conditions on Merseyside. The Frenchman – who would have had five but for a hasty whistle from the referee – matched in one game his total for the whole of 2010.
“Folk will tell you the reason we’ve not scored goals is that we’re not playing two centre-forwards,” said Moyes. Against Blackpool, he started with Saha alone but well supported from midfield, and added Jermaine Beckford on 70 minutes. “We did have to change it but I think we made lots of opportunities. We played with a decent bounce.
“We’ve got a good team, it’s just that I have struggled to find the right solution. Maybe the team hasn’t won often enough because we’ve not had Saha at the top end of the pitch. His record over the years is that he hasn’t been fit that often but when he has been he has had an impact. The goals have got people realising just why he has been so fierce over the years.”
Saha has now scored seven in his past six games and the manager acknowledged that the striker needs to feel good about himself to play so well. The surge in his confidence – even in the course of this bonkers encounter – was evident. His first goal, after 20 minutes, was laid on by good work from Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, who looks to be growing into the left-sided role vacated by Steven Pienaar. Just over an hour later the Frenchman tucked away his fourth.
In between, he had a goal chalked off because the referee (who later apologised) failed to play advantage, turned in Leighton Baines’s low cross and secured the match ball with a header. “There were bits of this game when I looked at him and thought, ‘Boy, you can see why he has played alongside the likes of (Zinedine) Zidane’,” Moyes said.
It was far from a one-man show, however. In addition to Saha, Marouane Fellaini was a driving influence and Beckford, who scored a fine volley, gave the strongest hint yet of his own prowess.
This being Everton, and the opponents being Blackpool, the match was not without its “gee whizz” moment, as Moyes put it. The visitors were fortunate to reach the interval on level terms thanks to Ian Evatt, and conceded the second goal quickly afterwards but rallied to scare the home crowd with a madcap two minutes in which Jason Puncheon scored a debut goal and CharlieAdam gave them the lead.
Keen to protect the points after four successive defeats, Ian Holloway made two defensive substitutions for the final 15 minutes. His side conceded three more.
“Whatever ticket we buy it is not going to win the raffle at the minute,” he said. “People will say we should change our philosophy, but I bloody well tried.
“Tony Pulis told me we are playing roulette football and he might be right but we don’t know any other way. Some of our stuff going forward was brilliant and we hurt them; I don’t play a defensive side because we might lose by eight.”
* Guardian Service
