Monday’s game between Everton and Newcastle United was an absolute slobberknocker! Where to even start?! It had everything, goals, controversy, bad refereeing decisions, so I’m going to rewind right back to the beginning.

There was a bit of shock as Newcastle announced their line-up, which didn’t feature Demba Ba, who was replaced by Sylvain Marveaux. The game started out, obviously paying tribute to the 96 fans that passed away during the Hillsborough catastrophe that happened in 1989.

As the game started, Newcastle immediately came out on the attack, but lost the ball, and from there on in, it was pretty much all Everton. A rightfully disallowed goal after two minutes saw Nikica Jelavic collide at speed with the post, which pretty much put him out of the game, eventually getting substituted towards the end of the first half. But that didn’t slow Everton down! The Toffees immediately capitalised on the makeshift team Newcastle had thrown together, without the likes of Cheick Tiote, Fabricio Coloccini, Danny Simpson, or Tim Krul. The right hand sided pairing of Perch and Marveaux were getting ripped to shreds by the teamwork and speed of Leighton Baines and Steven Pienaar, which, after a beautiful move, saw Everton go 1-0 up at the 15 minute mark. Everton dominated the rest of the half, and could have maybe had three by the end of it, although Newcastle spurned a couple of chances themselves, with Cissé narrowly volleying the ball wide, and Leighton Baines clearing a certain own goal off the line with Tim Howard beaten.

But the game didn’t really kick into life until the second half. Demba Ba finally replaced Marveaux, who had a torrid time trying to deal with Baines in the first half. And oh my, did it pay off! Four minutes in, and the aforementioned Ba had put the Toon back on level terms, after a wonderfully weighted pass from Yohan Cabaye; Newcastle immediately seemed like life had been breathed back into them. And now that there were two strikers to deal with, Everton looked a bit more stretched at the back, not being as comfortable on the ball as they were during the first half. But the controversy didn’t kick in until the linesman’s flag denied Everton another goal, this time with Fellaini sticking the ball into the back of the net, but replays showed that he was in fact in line with the last man. Bad call numero uno.

Then came the really big decision, and referee Mike Jones will get stick from both sets of fans for this one. Victor Anichebe headed the ball at Steve Harper, who pushed it onto the bar, only for it to slightly cross the line, before getting cleared by a combination of Mike Williamson and Ba. Everton had obviously thought they had scored, and a couple of the players had switched off/started shouting at the linesman, only for Newcastle to break with the ball. Three against one, and the ever dangerous Ben Arfa was sprinting down the field, only to get bumped into by Pienaar, before carrying on his run, but wait, what’s this?! The referee had obviously sensed something was wrong, so instead of playing advantage, stopped the play and booked Pienaar. Now I mean, I know that this move shouldn’t have even happened in the first place, don’t get me wrong, it was a 100% goal, but since when did two wrongs make a right? At this point, it’s 1-1, both sets of fans are livid, and Mike Jones has lost complete control of the game, now booking anyone who touches another player. Everyone is thinking either, ‘What the hell?! We should be 3-1 up by now!’ or ‘Boy, did we get lucky?’ I think you can sense which set of fans would be which.

A few chances later, Victor Anichebe gets the ball, back to goal, turns slightly, and smashes the ball through Steven Taylor’s legs and past the keeper into the bottom corner. Everton fans go wild! All the hard work, all the bad calls from the officials, and they’re still going to win it! Don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched, because two minutes later, down the other end of the pitch, Super Shola the Mackem Slayer delightfully chest the ball forward to Ba, and as he watches Tim Howard do a star jump, prods the ball underneath him, into the back of the net, as a sliding Distin tries in vain to stop it. And that was that. 2-2. Game over. A point gained for Newcastle, two points lost for Everton.

The real talking point of this game was obviously the referee and linesmen. It seemed like they couldn’t hack the pace of the game. And while it was a very high tempo match, Everton got screwed. My point is that goal line technology needs to be implemented to stop any uncertainty. Or what about those two officials that stand next to the goal? Either of those would have helped out a very frustrated Everton side. I know GLT is going to come in soon, but this is something that should have been put in place a long time ago. Sepp Blatter has a lot to answer for, and he had better not show his face on Merseyside any time soon.

Of course, many more mental decision like this will occur during this season, but the fans are the ones that are suffering. They pay roughly £30-50 for a ticket to watch their team play, only to get robbed. They’ve paid money, to go home feeling angry. But my Evertonian friends, calm down, one of these will go your way sometime soon, remember this?

My point is, what goes around comes around. You’re welcome.

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