A CRACKER OF A PARTY
Walcott & Co have a knees-up as they get festive in February
LAST action hero Theo Walcott revealed Everton’s fightback was fostered at a players’ night out which served as their late Christmas party.
The Toffees had the decency to shelve their festive knees-up when there was little to celebrate in December.
But as Carlo Ancelotti (right) saw his quiet revolution gather momentum with an audacious burglary at Vicarage Road, there was a unity of purpose in their chorus of Yule Never Walk Alone.
Watford, the better side for most of the match, got what they deserved. To come unstuck after squandering a two-goal lead against Everton for the second time in three seasons was a breathtaking feat of negligence.
If new boss Nigel Pearson’s honeymoon isn’t over, he has been turfed out of the fourposter and into the bunk beds.
Yerry Mina’s two goals in first-half stoppage time wiped out strikes by Adam Masina and Roberto Pereyra, before Walcott pounced at the death.
The former England striker said: “We didn’t have a game for 10 days, and as well as working in training – with the manager getting his message across – off the field we’ve been able to socialise as a team.
“It’s nice to get to know each other outside a football environment and that helped to bring us together a little bit more. We had planned to do something like this for a while because we didn’t have a Christmas party – things weren’t great at that time, so we made the right decision.
“It was a private event, and it’s worked in our favour, so we might be doing it more often!
“When you see people come out of their shell, it always helps – and here we worked hard for each other. It’s about time we produced a result like this. We’ve had this kind of stuff happen to us, and it’s nice that it’s been flipped.”
The huge outpouring of emotion among Everton players, staff and fans when Walcott turned sub Moise Kean’s hopeless finish into a perfect assist felt like a watershed moment at the school of science.
It was Everton’s first win in 35 games after falling behind and Walcott’s first goal in 22 appearances this season.
Such a fightback, after Fabian Delph’s red card with 20 minutes left, would have been unthinkable under Ancelotti’s unlamented predecessor Marco Silva.
Walcott said: “When you have been two down, you score the winner in the last minute with 10 men and you can hardly run because you are cramping up and the groin is getting tight, the emotion was always going to be there.”