Bolton Wanderers 3 Everton FC 2 - David Prentice's verdict

26 October 2009 00:00
EVERTON showed character. Everton showed courage. Everton showed astonishing reserves of resilience and spirit.[LNB]And they also showed the defensive naivety of schoolchildren.[LNB]Which is why they ended up with nothing at Bolton yesterday.[LNB]Football, sadly, is like that.[LNB]Bolton striker Kevin Davies pointed out, with some disgust, that Everton had snatched last minute winners at the Reebok in each of the last two seasons.[LNB]This time it was Everton's turn to suffer.[LNB]And the reasons were obvious.[LNB]Because they have forgotten how to defend.[LNB]And what's most difficult for the manager to solve is that it's not one individual who is responsible week after week.[LNB]The number of simple, avoidable, easy to stop goals his side has shipped in recent weeks has been calamitous.[LNB]From punts down the middle (Wolves), unmarked headers at corners (Stoke) to a whole gallery of howlers in Lisbon, they can now add three fresh failures at Bolton.[LNB]There was a man left shamefully unmarked in the 18-yard box, a poorly defended free-kick from the halfway line - then a punt into the penalty area from the goalkeeper.[LNB]None from the manual of impossible to stop strikes.[LNB]It's hard to be too harsh, given Everton's extreme circumstances at present.

Source: Liverpool_Echo