WOLVES CASH IN ON EVERTON’S CAT NAP
EVERTON’S Portuguese boss Marco Silva will have seen the black cat scurrying across the pitch as a sign of bad luck.
As if his side aren’t bad enough as it is, as they suffered their 10th league defeat of the campaign a week after being dumped out of the FA Cup by Millwall.
In England the appearance of the animal is supposedly good luck, but not on the continent.
“I don’t like black cats,” said Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo. “In Portugal it is bad luck.”
He will have liked everything else he watched on the pitch though, as his side put in another masterful display.
Wolves, at times, were wonderful but they didn’t need to be at their best to solidify their seventh spot in the table.
Ruben Neves, Raul Jimenez and Leander Dendoncker got the goals that meant Andre Gomes’ super strike for
Everton counted for nothing.
“It is a growing process,” added Nuno. “It began more than 18 months ago, same people, same players, trying to find solutions and improve.
“Seventy percent of this team today was with us in the Championship. We still have a long way to go. If you have
Everton 1 Wolves 3 Chris McKenna
the desire and hunger, you are always able to fight.”
Everton came into this game after a hard-fought win at Huddersfield but they failed to build on it and Silva moaned: “Our opponents were really better than us. But when I see how we lost the game, giving them everything so easily they could score from anywhere.
“We gave them things that are not normal at this level of football.
“It is up to us to solve these problems. It is happening often. We keep doing the same things.”
There was plenty of
Iberian feel to this with both managers from the peninsula and the players that influenced the game also hailing from that part of the world with Neves opening the scoring.
Leighton Baines, a fitness doubt before the game, looked off the pace and hauled down Matt Doherty in the area. He was subbed before half-time.
Just seven minutes were on the clock as Portugal’s Neves netted from the spot.
But then some magic from another Portuguese export, Gomes, brought some hope for the Toffees. The on-loan Barcelona man burst into the area and fired a rocket into the top corner.
Everton’s set-piece woe hit again though. Michael Keane gave away a needless free-kick and Joao Moutinho – another Portuguese – whipped it in to an unmarked Jimenez who headed home.
It was the brilliance of Diogo Jota that secured Wolves the third as his mazy run left the Everton defence bewildered.
His shot was blocked by
Kurt Zouma but the move got the goal it deserved as Dendoncker volleyed home.
Then the cat arrived and, just like Jota had given the Toffees defence the runaround, the feline had the security team chasing him up and down the pitch. It led to seven minutes being added on but Everton could have played for much longer and not found a way back into this.