Everton's seemingly comfortable 3-1 victory over Brimingham belies the fact that Kapo pulled Steve Bruce's men level only ten minutes from time.

A draw would have been a disappointment for the Toffees, but late goals from Lee Carsley and James Vaughan pushed them towards the three points. It is now four wins in a row for Everton in all competitions and all of a sudden the heartburn of losing to Liverpool seems to have eased.

Everton now have the triumvirate of Tim Cahill, Thomas Gravesen, and Carsley fully fit – the potent combination that drove them to fourth place and into Europe. The fact that the squad has since been considerably improved yet a second fourth-place finish hasn’t been achieved shows what a complicated balance has to be struck between a close tight-knit team and a squad with the depth to cope with multiple tournaments.

'It is now four wins in a row for Everton in all competitions and all of a sudden the heartburn of losing to Liverpool seems to have eased'


Everton went ahead after just ten minutes when Yakubu did exactly what he was brought in for – and scored. Sandwiched between this goal, a simple paint-by-numbers finish, were several profligate misses. I have been critical of the Nigerian, and I will continue to criticise him. I’m very superstitious and my childhood memories of watching the Toffees were punctuated with touching wood every 10 seconds to stave off potential bad luck; and there seems to be a strange symmetry between my criticism and his goals.
 
Birmingham’s equaliser was the matching bookend to Yakubu’s opener, coming 10 minutes from the end, and the shock of dropping two points combined with the gaggle of needless misses earlier in the game pushed Everton back into life. With seconds remaining, Carsley punched a 20-yarder right into the top corner and, seemingly not satisfied with that, he then set up the returning Vaughan to score a third.

Everton now have a horde of potential goalscorers; Yakubu, Vaughan, Cahill, Victor Anichebe, Andy Johnson, Mikel Arteta, and even Joleon Lescott have proven their goal-nabbing capabilities.

Everton's squad now looks a far cry from the emaciated three-point gathering machine of the Champions League qualifying season. A swarm of polyglot players have been brought in, both Phil Jagielka and Phil Neville can fill a number of roles, and Lescott is becoming increasingly comfortable with speaking the language of a left-back.

Arteta and the slight Steven Pienaar have shown the beginning of an excellent relationship, and Gravesen, the goggle-eyed Dane, will also thrive next to these two. Perhaps it is time for Everton to stop being labelled as a long-ball side; the only residue from that era is Tony Hibbert, constantly shooting the ball upfield searching for the ghost of Duncan Ferguson.

At half-time in this game a cavalcade of past heroes were paraded around Goodison. Historically this brings a tear to the eye and a lump in the throat, our present players looking poor in comparison to past legends, with the inflated memories of their achievements.

Half-time at Goodison is usually a time for worries to mount, for programmes to be throttled in the clammy hands of umpteen pessimist Toffees; a retired Neville Southall once even came out for a half-time tear-jerker, urging the fans to give one final push in a relegation scramble. These days we look forward to the second half, rather than back to our past heroes. For once thoughts were of the present, and the halcyon past wasn’t dragging us down.

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