Key events
A sweet moment as Ashley Young has a word with Tyler, who unfortunately didn’t get on to make a little bit of father-son history.
FULL-TIME: Everton 2-0 Peterborough
A classic? Absolutely not. Everton have at least avoided turning a bizarre day into a dreadful one.
GOAL! Everton 2-0 Peterborough (Ndiaye pen 90+8)
Iliman Ndiaye rolls the ball down the middle, calm as you like, the keeper having gone to his right.
PENALTY TO EVERTON!
90+7 min: Everton 1-0 Peterborough Branthwaite is clawed down inside the area and it’s an easy decision.
FULL-TIME: Fulham 4-1 Watford
Marco Silva avoids any embarrassment against his former employers.
GOAL! Fulham 4-1 Watford (Castagne 85)
The cherry on top. Timothy Castagne caps a productive night for Fulham by heading in at the near post from Martial Godo’s cross.
84 min: Everton 1-0 Peterborough Poor Armando Broja looks like he’s hurt his right ankle and it’s serious. The stretcher is out for a striker who’s had some pretty torrid luck with injuries.
The narrative is tantalising.
72 min: Everton 1-0 Peterborough Ashley Young is coming on for Everton. Tyler, his son, remains on the bench. Darren Ferguson, it’s now time to make a change.
GOAL! Fulham 3-1 Watford (Andersen 65)
Fulham should be all good from here, the centre-half Joachim Andersen getting in on the action. The ball drops nicely for him inside the area after a bit of pinball from a corner – he laces in the volley, no chance for the keeper.
63 min: Everton 1-0 Peterborough The visitors are starting to look the part on the ball, knocking it around comfortably, perhaps taking advantage of Everton’s institution-wide itchiness. A clear-cut chance awaits, though.
GOAL! Fulham 2-1 Watford (Jiménez 49 pen)
Raúl Jiménez, a half-time substitute, is quick into the action, slotting in his third penalty in the last five days! Having scored a spotkick brace against Ipswich, he now puts his side back in front against Watford.
FULL-TIME: Sheffield United 0-1 Cardiff
It’s all over at Bramall Lane, where Cardiff have held on to find joy away from their travails in the Championship. The other good news is they’ve gone four matches unbeaten.
It’s half-time at Everton-Peterborough and Fulham-Watford. Cardiff still lead 1-0 against Sheffield United, with 10 minutes remaining in the second half.
GOAL! Everton 1-0 Peterborough (Beto 42)
Relief runs around Goodison as Beto slots in the first of the night. It’s courtesy of a precise, threaded-through pass by Harrison Armstrong that cuts open Peterborough. Beto finds it in the area before rounding the keeper and finishing into an empty net.
Conor Murphy writes in as reports emerge of David Moyes (!!!!!!) potentially returning to Goodison Park.
Feeling very strange about Dyche leaving, especially with the prospect of Moyes coming in. It’s strange that Moyes is being preferred by the owners because it doesn’t solve the problems we are facing. We cannot score goals, and David Moyes isn’t known for turning teams into free-scoring swashbuckling units. He’s known for making teams more solid. This isn’t our issue. If TFG wants to replace Dyche for Moyes, I think they don’t understand what’s going to keep us up.
When Moyes left last, Everton brought in Martinez and benefitted the season after with a defence marshalled by Moyes, and an attack with more freedom. Surely there is someone else you could bring in to retain Dyche’s defensive acumen and bring in some more flair? I know it’s not necessarily as simple as that, but if you’re not fixing the problem, what’s the point in the solution.
GOAL! Fulham 1-1 Watford (Vata 33)
And they’re level! It’s a cracker, too. Rocco Vata picks up the ball in the Fulham half, drives central from the left and lets fly from afar, 30 yards out, into the top right. Game on!
GOAL! Fulham 1-0 Watford (Muniz 26)
The Premier League side are up and away at home, with Rodrigo Muniz nailing a first-time hit inside the area after a low ball in from the right by Adama Traoré. It’s a lovely finish, beating the keeper diving down to his left.
23 min: Everton 0-0 Peterborough This time Orel Mangala hits the ball perfectly, nailing a delicious volley from inside the D, but rattling the crossbar.
Matt Burtz offers a rather different view regarding Dyche.
I’m an Everton fan. I’ve watched almost every game this season. Anyone defending Sean Dyche at this point is delusional. This team has scored 15 goals in 19 league games. They have fewer goals than Southampton, a team with six points. They are the only team who lost to Southampton. Four of Everton’s goals came against Wolves, who have conceded the most goals in the league. That means Everton scored 11 goals in the other 18 games. This team is not without attacking talent and to say that he is the only one who can keep them up is ludicrous. You cannot 0-0 your way to safety; at some point goals have to be scored to win games. Staying with a manager who has proven he has no attacking ideas at all is a sure way to go down. At least now they have a fighting chance.
16 min: Everton 0-0 Peterborough Goodison isn’t exactly bouncing here as Mykolenko punts a long ball forward, trying to find Beto. Patterson wins a free-kick out on the right … the ball is dinked in, headed away, with Mangala set up to have shot from just outside the D. He delivers a complete miscue, a sliced miskick more familiar in playground football.
There is plenty of love for Sean Dyche in my email inbox. Here’s Tim Smith on the sixth manager to be sacked in the Premier League this season:
I think we all wish Sean Dyche the best. Done a good job under the circumstances. Plenty of struggling clubs will have his agent on speed dial. As for Everton, borderline unwatchable from a neutral perspective, and careful what you wish for. A very real chance of going down if they get their next move wrong. Dyche would have kept them up I think. Nice shiny new stadium for Championship clubs to break in?
7 min: Everton 0-0 Peterborough For obvious reasons, we haven’t really chatted about Peterborough all that much so far. They’re still led by Darren Ferguson, who has managed the club on-and-off since January 2007! Maybe he’ll try and outdo his old man and stick around for another 20.
1 min: Everton 0-0 Peterborough Leighton Baines and Seamus Coleman, who were a great full-back pairing back in the day, soak in the applause as they take charge. Everton are playing with a three-man central defence.
As Everton get ready to kick things off, Mary Waltz weighs in on the decision to axe Sean Dyche.
Greetings Taha, from the non burning half of Free State California. On the Dyche sacking. It may satisfy the howling of the internet wolves. Who knows. Maybe the traditional “new manager” bounce will occur. The new owners probably hated Dyche”s defensive style. But everyone, take a look at the December fixtures and the points Dyche drew from that hellish fixture list. And simply stated, Everton does not have the talent to play expansive football. Put me on the this is a mistake list.
Goodison roars as the players leave the tunnel. One of the more bizarre days in the long history of Everton FC.
Joe Pearson writes in: “Watching the beginning of Blades v Bluebirds on ESPN. Pretty sparse crowd there at Bramall Lane. Is it too cold for the locals to come out? As someone who has attended an NFL game in Green Bay that kicked off at -20 C, I have a word for the no-shows, which I will not use. A runner friend of mine used to say, there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad preparation.”
It is pretty sparse over at Bramall Lane.
GOAL! Sheffield United 0-1 Cardiff (Ashford 18)
23rd in the Championship take the lead against third! It’s a defensive error that prompts it, with Sheffield United’s Rhys Norrington-Davies dawdling on the ball in his own half. Cardiff’s Cian Ashford hassles him off it but still has plenty to do, driving into the area before calmly slotting in at the near post while holding off Norrington-Davies. Great composure from the 20-year-old.
Fulham v Watford teams
Fulham: Benda, Castagne, Andersen, Cuenca, Sessegnon, Andreas Pereira, Lukic, Smith Rowe, Traoré, Rodrigo Muniz, Iwobi
Subs: Leno, Bassey, Diop, Reed, Cairney, King, Godo, Wilson, Jiménez
Watford: Bond, Andrews, Porteous, Ogbonna, Tikvic, Larouci, Ince, Kayembe, Dwomoh, Vata, Doumbia
Subs: Sierralta, Chakvetadze, Louza, Sissoko, Bayo, Morris, Baah, Nabizada, Roberts
Young (father) and Young (son) both begin on the bench. Everton make six changes to the team that started in the 1-0 league defeat by Bournemouth.
stephendcarr77 (I assume that isn’t on the birth certificate) writes in: “You’d be forgiven for thinking Dyche wrote that club statement himself. No-nonsense to say the least.”
Everton v Peterborough teams
The post-Dyche era begins.
Everton: João Virgínia, O’Brien, Keane, Branthwaite, Patterson, Mangala, Gueye, Mykolenko, Armstrong, Beto, Ndiaye
Subs: Begovic, Harrison, Doucouré, Young, Lindstrøm, Butterfield, Broja, Leban
Peterborough: Bilokapic, Nevett, Fernandez, Katongo, O’Brien-Brady, Kyprianou, Collins, Hayes, Conn-Clarke, Jones, Dornelly
Subs: Blackmore, Mothersille, De Havilland, Odoh, Lindgren, Sparkes, Wallin, Young, Ihionvien
Not a particularly hopeful email in from Edan Tal: “Dyche getting sacked is really reminding me of the Venkys coming into Blackburn and quickly sacking Sam Allardyce for Steve Kean. Relegation quickly followed.”
Speaking of the Young v Young battle, Luke McLaughlin has more on footballing father and sons.
This is a really lovely email, sent in by Nicholas Byrne.
Toffee here. Just want to put on record my thanks to Sean Dyche and his team. When he was appointed, I wrote that we’d finally employed a grown up, and I say that as someone who really wanted Lampard to succeed, and really really wanted Rafa to succeed. I’m firmly in the mind that nobody but Dyche could have got us through our points deductions, which were definitely the club’s fault but most definitely not his, and he has handled himself with dignity throughout his tenure.
It won’t be any consolation to him tonight, but this Everton fan will always be grateful to him. As for who is next, the new owners have already taken one major decision, we need to trust them to get the next one right, too. Onwards and sideways, Blues.
Sheffield United v Cardiff teams
Sheffield United: Davies, Gilchrist, Baptiste, Norrington-Davies, Burrows, Blacker, Brooks, Brewster, Marsh, McCallum, Oné
Subs: Faxon, Hamer, O’Hare, Ahmedhodzic, Robinson, Boyes, Hampson, Colechin, Aston
Cardiff: Horvath, Kpakio, Fish, Daland, Bagan, Ng, Ralls, Colwill, Tanner, Ashford, Etete
Subs: Turner, Davies, Giles, Siopis, Rinomhota, Robertson, Willock, Jefferies, Pearce
This is a tale of two Championship clubs experiencing very different seasons. United are third while Cardiff are tied up in a relegation scrap, only Plymouth below them.
“Don’t you think that club statement is rather cold?” writes Phil Grey. “No gratitude expressed for keeping Everton up for two more seasons through extraordinarily difficult circumstances. No warm wishes for the future.”
I thought that, too, having kept them up despite a points deduction. Dyche will bounce back, in his standard no-nonsense style.
Some news that’s come in: Amad Diallo has signed a new five-and-a-half year contract at Manchester United. He’s been one of the few pluses from a pretty torrid season.
Preamble
Quite the drama … and the real stuff hasn’t even kicked off yet. Sean Dyche was sacked as Everton manager earlier today, just hours before their FA Cup third-round tie against Peterborough, the 53-year-old denied his own Robins-Fergie moment. Leighton Baines, the former left-back and now Everton’s under-18s coach, takes charge tonight alongside Seamus Coleman, which is giving off real 2013/14 vibes.
The more wholesome story of the evening is the possibility of Ashley Young lining up against his son Tyler, who plays as a midfielder for Posh. This interview is very sweet.
That tie kicks off at 7.45pm GMT, alongside Watford’s trip to Fulham, which will see Marco Silva come up against his old side. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching the Cottagers this season with all their flair going forward, and reckon they’ve got a decent cup run in them. Before that, Sheffield United host Cardiff City at 7pm, so let’s keep an eye on that, too.
Here’s to the magic of the cup, and the joy it still provides even as it comes up against questions of relevance. For all of Manchester United’s misery last year, it’d be hard to find a supporter who wasn’t ecstatic when they triumphed over City in May.
Let’s get going: feel free to drop in your thoughts, queries, worries, predictions, whatever you fancy. Cheers!
