Everton FC's fixture jam is like Christmas

FOR Everton's exhausted players, Christmas came early this week - but no-one was celebrating.Injured skipper Phil Neville likened the Blues' schedule of three matches in six days to the traditionally frantic festive fixture list.And he insisted nobody at Goodison was using the intense schedule as an excuse.'People might say it's an excuse, but it is a fact,' he declared.'It is a bit like playing over Christmas where you play Boxing Day then two days later then two days after that.'It does catch up with you so at Tottenham we played really well again, we were in the game but when the second goal goes in I think it just knocked the stuffing out of us.'The last 20 minutes we looked a tired team again. We can't feel sorry for ourselves though, we've to pick ourselves back up. We have to face a massive team in Aston Villa.'They are probably our nearest rivals in terms of competing for fifth place. We have to win on Saturday; there is no question about it. We have to be mentally right and recover from the games we've just had.'Neville admitted he was at a loss to explain the current spate of serious injury being sustained by so many Blues stars - amongst them himself.

Source: Liverpool_Echo