Well tonight his team were definitely the proverbial box of chocolates.
A couple of nut crunches a couple of soft centres, fruity French nougat, a Russian caramel and the odd toffee. None of his team looked like they were going to dominate at anytime. And let's face it they do have a good team. I really rate the Russian Billy Alphabet. Rodwell, Arteta, Beckford and Saha are all class too. Tonight they got close to 60% of the ball but they just couldn't bash their way through our hard centres and the fast becoming stick of rock Foster.
All that is so good because every now and then you play a game that means more than the net result. A win is more than a win, a draw is more than a draw and loss is more than a loss. Tonight's journey up to Goodison was one of those games. What ever the result it was going to prove to be more important than the net result. Given recent League form I went into this game fully prepared for a big loss. I don't mean the like the magnitude of the 5-0 that Man Utd put on us. Just a 1-0 loss in my mind could have been our biggest loss of the year. Psychlogically we would have thrown away one of our games in hand against one of the three Premier teams all laying claims to the name the Blues. Losing our other game in hand to the other Blues, Chelski, would see us win the title the Blues on an emotional level anyway.As I say I expected a loss but wanted a draw and hoped for a win. In the words of the Stones You can't always get what you want, But if you try sometimes you might find You get what you need! Well tonight we tried harder than we have for very long time. We got a results in a large part to the rapidly improving Beausejour's incisive runs. I would still love to see him running off Ziggy with Martins running down the left. When we hoist the ball to Jerome, he all to often gets beaten to the ball or pushed off it. Ziggy laid off his first three balls tonight. Nothing to be taken away from Jerome as he ran everywhere. 90% of the work is done off the ball and tonight we worked very hard off the ball and out of possession to contain Everton. They had 22 chances and caused consternation no more than four times. That's the Churchillian fight we have come to expect. 1-1 is huge for us and pretty much ends Evertons season whilst putting ours back on track. We wanted 3 points but we needed 1 point.
I will take a loss to Bolton on Saturday and exit the FA Cup if we can beat them in a couple of weeks. Sort out Wigan and Blackburn on either side of that game then go to Sunderland sitting safe and pretty on 40 points. But that is not how life as a Birmingham City fans is. I fully expect to have to go to White Hart Lane on the last day of season needing a point to stay up and having to face Arsenal at Wembley the following week to win our second cup for the year.
Strap yourself in Mr Spock it's going to be a bumpy ride and keep your vulcan digits offa my turkish delights.