Relegation beckons for tame Toffees
THERE were 15 minutes left when the third goal sailed into Jordan Pickford’s net but enough was enough. Solemnly, this wonderful old stadium began to empty and you could not help but feel this was reflective of the bigger picture.
Everton have got five games left to preserve their status in the Premier League but the mass exodus was the clearest indication yet: the locals, who have stood by the team through such misery, have finally had their resolve broken. The Championship, disgracefully, is beckoning.
Everything about Everton screamed relegation — the secondhalf collapse, the horrible lack of quality and the disappearance of fight on the pitch. By the end of the game they could not lose, they were a disjointed rabble and Newcastle could not believe their good fortune.
Eddie Howe’s men had to stand firm at times but, as the locals streamed out, they were playing with the confidence of a team who know they are bounding enthusiastically towards the Champions League.
What a year this has been for Howe and the same is true for Everton but for entirely different reasons. This has been an affront to those who have stood by them week after week, investing money and emotion, and getting nothing back in return. If the team played as well as the supporters back them, they, too, would be dreaming of big European nights. Not now.
To think the night had started with such defiance. Everton’s coach was welcomed at the stadium by the kind of visceral intensity you would associate with Buenos Aires or Naples, with plumes of blue smoke billowing from all corners of Goodison Road.
But their manager Sean Dyche was forced to admit afterwards: ‘We took the game on and I thought in the first half we had been as strong as we have been.
‘We went under too easily after the second goal. You can’t against good sides like Newcastle.
‘I thought it was a very strong first-half performance. We kept them to not many chances but they are a good outfit and they kept going and got a second goal and the reaction to that was not good enough.
‘We are not finding the big moments in the final third. It is still a work in progress. We have to park this one quickly and clear our minds going into the next one.’
Everton started brightly enough, chasing and pressing and trying to win the loose balls. Newcastle, by contrast, were a little sluggish.
One of Everton’s main problems, though, is that they carry the threat of a guard dog with no teeth. They are never going to clamp on to opponents or snap away with menace because they do not have any goals within their ranks and you struggle to see how that will suddenly change.
They had one sight of Nick Pope’s goal in the 18th minute, when Dominic Calvert-Lewin twisted inside Fabian Schar but then lost his footing, but the first time they switched off, just before the half hour, proved to be fatal.
In the blink of an eye, Newcastle swept down the left as Matt Targett nudged Joelinton forward. The Brazilian cracked a drive that Pickford parried but Callum Wilson stole in ahead of Vitalii Mykolenko to prod in his fifth goal since the start of April.
Eventually Everton regrouped and they finished the half strongly, only the tightest of VAR decisions preventing Calvert-Lewin from scoring.
To their credit, Everton did not let their heads drop. Yet there was something too chaotic about their long ball efforts. Once Joelinton scored the decisive second with a close-range header, that was it. Everton collapsed and Newcastle turned the screw.
Wilson doubled his tally with a beautiful lob, while Jacob Murphy swiftly made Dwight McNeil’s effort from a corner inconsequential.