Martinez relief as Everton get the breaks
Bournemouth miss a penalty then lucky Barkley buries them
IT was mid-afternoon and the forecourt at the Vitality Stadium was starting to fill up with expectant fans. From the other side of King’s Park, beyond the little bowling green, the shouts of two sets of players on a muddy pitch carried over on the breeze.
The game between Bournemouth Electric and Westover in the Hayward Saturday League was a mismatch watched by a handful of spectators crouched against the wind. Bournemouth Electric stroked the ball around at their leisure. Westover chased shadows.
Midway through the second half, Bournemouth Electric’s centre forward stepped inside and rifled low past the Westover goalkeeper.
‘That’s 11-0,’ an old boy standing behind the goal said, shaking his head. The goalkeeper lay on the floor for a long time, his nose close to the mud. The 11th hurt just as much as the first.
You can find magic, meaning and poignancy in football wherever you choose to look and for all the inroads that have been made into the integrity of the FA Cup, for all the magic that has been stripped away from the old competition, it is still hard to shake the feeling it has an umbilical attachment to the grass roots game in England. So, an hour after Bourne- mouth Electric and Westover had trudged back to their changing rooms, Bournemouth and Everton ran out in front of a capacity crowd at what used to be Dean Court and the thrill was still there.
The competition is different now – Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe made seven changes from the side that lost to Stoke here last weekend – but it still carries significance.
Sometimes, success in the Cup can be a catalyst for an improvement in League form. That, certainly, is what Everton will hope for. Howe fielded a weakened team but the Everton manager, Roberto Martinez, did not. Martinez has been under pressure at Goodison Park. Winning here meant more than just making the FA Cup quarter-finals.
Martinez got his reward for his conviction. It was a tight match that turned on a missed first-half Bournemouth penalty but after a slow start, Everton grew stronger as the game wore on.
Romelu Lukaku, who had only scored one in seven games before yesterday, grabbed a morale-boosting goal and Ross Barkley and Gareth Barry ran midfield in what turned into a comfortable 2-0 win.
Everton had made the better start but when Barry lost the ball deep inside the opposition half after 15 minutes, Bournemouth loan signing Juan Iturbe showed just how dangerous his side could be on the break. Iturbe took on Everton by himself and danced and jinked his way to the edge of the Everton area before pulling his shot wide.
Iturbe’s pace was discomforting Everton and James McCarthy was booked for chopping the Argentine down as he burst forward again. Everton, prompted by Barkley and Tom Cleverley, struggled for fluency or rhythm in their approach play.
After half an hour, though, Everton fashioned the best chance of the game so far. Lukaku outstripped Tommy Elphick down the Bournemouth right. Elphick looked like he was running in treacle and Lukaku bore down on Adam Federici and tried to slip the ball past him at his near post. He was denied by Federici’s outstretched right boot.
Bournemouth hit back. Phil Jagielka denied Dan Gosling with a perfectly timed tackle just inside the area and then, eight minutes before half time, the home side were awarded a penalty after a blatant and puzzling handball by McCarthy as Everton defended a corner. Already booked, McCarthy was fortunate not to be shown a second yellow card.
His luck held, too. Charlie Daniels struck the penalty well but Joel Rob- les flung himself to his left and pushed it out. Iturbe and Simon Francis got in each other’s way as they rushed to convert the rebound and Francis blazed it wide. McCarthy hugged Robles in gratitude.
At half-time, former Bournemouth boss Harry Redknapp was scathing about the work-rate of some of Everton’s players, particularly Lukaku.
‘I walked further with my dog this morning,’ Redknapp said of the Belgium forward’s efforts.
Ten minutes after half-time, though, Everton punished Bournemouth for their penalty miss. Barkley, who had had an average game in front of watching England man- ager Roy Hodgson, got the ball on the edge of the Bournemouth area and let fly. The ball cannoned off the foot of ex-Evertonian Gosling and looped high over Federici into the bottom corner.
Bournemouth came desperately close to an equaliser on the hour when a Junior Stanislas free-kick deflected off the Everton wall and bounced just wide of Robles’ lefthand post with the goalkeeper stranded.
The home side pressured Everton hard now. Gosling aimed a header straight at Robles from six yards and substitute Matt Ritchie sidefooted wide after a low cross from Joshua King. On the touchline, Howe
held his head in his hands in frustration. But as Bournemouth pressed, Everton sensed their chance to hit them on the break. Some lovely interplay between Aaron Lennon and McCarthy led to a chance for Barkley to double his tally but his curling shot was deflected just wide by a Bournemouth defender.
Bryan Oviedo’s corner was underhit but Gareth Barry reacted quickest and changed the direction of it with a sublime backheel at the near post. The ball rolled across the box and Lukaku rifled it past Federici.
Everton were a big step nearer Wembley and Martinez had bought himself a period of grace.