Benfica v Everton

[scoobydoo]

Did jonah say he was going to this tonight? :omg: Hope the sightseeing was good anyway! :laugh

[mathare]

Did jonah say he was going to this tonight? :omg:Pretty sure he did, aye. Oops!

[John]

Football? Eh? I'm still at work. :(

[MattR]

Didn't see the game, what sort of side did Everton have out? Very rare they get beaten heavily isn't it. Poor JJ! Hopefully he had a good trip anyway!

[scoobydoo]

Didn't see the game, what sort of side did Everton have out? Very rare they get beaten heavily isn't it. Poor JJ! Hopefully he had a good trip anyway!

I think they had about 10 or 11 regulars out Matt, had 2 young lads at fullbacks;

24 Howard
02 Hibbert
15 Distin
31 Coleman
07 Bilyaletdinov
17 Cahill
19 Gosling
25 Fellaini
26 Rodwell
11 Jo
22 Yakubu

Hope it wasnt too painfull jj.....you could get revenge on Bonfire Night eh. :)

[jonahjones]

Many thanks for your kind words of sympathy, gents! :wink

I would like to say I saw all the sights, however, as tends to be the case on these trips, the sight i saw more than all others was the local brew, in this case Super Bock!

As has already been touched upon, we were without a whole team of players - Lucas Neill, Johnny Heitinga, Leighton Baines, Phil Jagielka, Joseph Yobo, Phil Neville, Leon Osman, Steven Pienaar, Mikel Arteta, Victor Anichebe and James Vaughan. We also lost Diniyar Bilyaletdinov shortly after half-time.

Including Vaughan as a current England U-21, there are only Osman and Arteta out of those twelve players who are not internationals and the latter is who we miss more than anyone!

This meant that we had no fewer than seven players playing out of position including a teenage right-back who made his debut a left-back!

It was widely accepted that we could afford to lose this match but you never want to be embarrassed. At half-time, we were still very much in with a shout but somehow managed to concede three goals in six minutes!

Tony Hibbert is stealing a living as a footballer and, whilst he did have a serious injury, Yakubu has been back a month now and looks about as sharp as a wet dishcloth and with all the enthusiasm of one.

[MattR]

Frustrating player Yakubu, isn't he JJ? We had the same thing with him at Pompey. Scores some great goals every now and then but it just seems he could be so much better if he put the effort in.

How's Distin doing? He had a bit of a dodgy spell for us last season but on the whole he was great for us and it was a shame to lose him (as it was the other 10 too! Well, apart from Campbell who was long since over the hill)