Date: 15/03/2014 Venue: Goodison Park Kick off: 15:00 Officials: Referees: Roger East. Assistants: S Ledger, M Scholes. Fourth Official: L Probert. Managers Everton: Roberto Martinez Cardiff: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer History The last league game at Goodison between the two teams came in the 1961/62 season. Everton won the match 8-3 The last league meeting between the two took place on Saturday 31st August 2013 reulting in a point each. Everton Everton carry patchy recent form into Saturday's encounter, Roberto Martinez's side are striving to secure a seventh successive win at Goodison Park in all competitions. Martinez's men return to Barclays Premier League action after a 4-1 defeat at Arsenal ended their FA Cup bid at the quarter-final stage last weekend – a scoreline that failed to do justice to a competitive display at Emirates Stadium. That loss was a fourth in eight fixtures across the two competitions. The remaining four matches have been won, but Barclays Premier League losses to city rivals Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea have placed a dent in the Merseysiders' European ambitions. In their enforced absence from last weekend's Barclays Premier League schedule, Everton dropped to seventh place in the table behind Manchester United on goal difference, although they have played a match less than the reigning champions and have two in hand to chip away at Spurs’ five-point advantage in fifth. Cardiff Cardiff City's strikers have been given special training sessions with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ahead of Saturday's trip to Everton. The Cardiff manager knows a thing or two about finding the net in English football as he scored 91 goals in 235 Barclays Premier League appearances for Manchester United. Solskjaer hopes to pass on some nuggets of wisdom to his forward players in a bid to help them become prolific in the top flight. A return of 22 goals from 29 Barclays Premier League games this season has left Cardiff in the bottom three on goal difference heading into the weekend, but Solskjaer is determined to oversee a change in fortunes. Possible Lineups Everton: Joel, Baines, Distin, Jageilka, Coleman, Barry, Barkley, McCarthy, Pienaar, Mirallas, Lukaku Cardiff City: Marshall; Fabio, Caulker, Turner, Daehli, Zaha, Medel, Kim, Mutch; Noone, Campbell
Hmmm, that's interesting, 1 full back and 2 cb's and then a 6 man midfield and 1 up top. Not seen that formation before. Lol!!! Bit unfair dropping young Declan after a good performance last week.
No mate, you can only work with the tools you are given and it is good to see the return of the pre-match thread.
Team XI: Marshall, Caulker (C), Medel, Campbell, Kim, Noone, Mutch, Cala, Theophile-Catherine, Fabio, John bench: Lewis; Whittingham, Jones, Gunnarsson, Cowie, Dæhli, Zaha
where is Eikrem? whats the point in signing a midfielder and not even playing him, or even putting him on the bench, what a joke. and why isnt Daehli getting any games.... hes better than kim for sure....
We gave it our best. Unsure about Fabio off for Zaha. Last goal was incredibly unlucky. Marshall awesome. I am gutted by that fluke goal, but we need to threaten to score more!!!!
That was a well thought out gameplan by Ole that he was prepared to change at a stroke when it needed tweaking - very good decision making. Marshall had another blinder and kept us in it - but then again, that's his job. Mutch again looked a bit slow and Noone was inneffective being played way out of position - that I would argue was a mistake by Ole and probably his only one for that game. Everyone did their bit and it nearly worked. All three points were even possible and Fraizer was a thorn in their side all game. If he'd buried that clear first half chance, I reckon we'd have had them. As it was, when your luck is out, you'll get nothing, and that's what we got. Their second was an absolute fluke and even their first was a deflection - hey ho.
We've seen a good display for the last few games now, we need some luck though, but that is surely due. We were down and out, but the this team is giving hope where none was, we have a squeak at staying up if we keep this going, but we must do it against the lower placed sides and we must make those games count now. Liverpool should be interesting, in all honesty, if we were to get a point against either Everton or Liverpool, I would have gone for Liverpool being as we at home. What we need is for others to fail as well, that would make things a bit easier.
