It's been 24 years since we've won the league, let's hope we don't have to wait another 24

It’s BACK, It’s FINALLY BACK! The moment we’ve all been waiting for since May, Today is the officially the opening day of the new Barclays Premier League season and boy does it feel like Christmas as a kid.

It's Roooverrrss for the first trip of the season

Everton will start their 2010/11 season with a short away trip to Blackburn Rovers. Our last trip to Ewood Park ended with a last minute grasp from Cahill to win the game 3-2, however it wasn’t the best game and Blackburn did manage to crack us a few times and cause alot of problems, something that we cannot allow them to do this time.

New boys Becks raring and ready to go

We all remember our start to the season last year with that disgraceful 6-1 drubbing to the Arse at Goodison, however, unlike last season, we start this season with a full squad, apart from Victor Anichebe, as well as having the services of new signings like Jermaine Beckford from Leeds, Mageye Gueye  from Strasborg and Joao Silva from Aves in Portugal who have already prooved themselves to be top signings during a VERY successful preseason which ended with 6 wins and 1 defeat. If we can get off to a good start at Ewood I believe this could be one of our best seasons under David Moyes to date. I’m not the only one who thinks that though. Some of the big name managers in the League have tipped us as being the Dark Horses this season including David Moyes’ opposite number today Big Fat Sam of the Rovers, Whiskey Nose Ferguson, Hawwy Wedknapp. Arse of the Arse even went as far to say “Everton could be fighting to win the League this season.” As flattering as that is…nah! Ain’t gonna happen quite yet. However these are all great signs for a good season to come. We have new players, we’ve got rid of the crap we don’t need including Dan “Im too big for Everton” Gosling going to erm THE TOON haha, Arteta has agreed to stay for another 5 years and confidence is gleaming at Goodison, exciting times are ahead.

As for today, as I  said Everton only have definite man out being Victor Anichebe, so Moyesy has an almost full squad to choose from, which means possible League debuts for Beckford and Gueye, however, I believe these 2 will start on the bench. Fellaini is back after his horrific injury against the Red Shite and has managed to get some pre season playing time in against Everton De Vina Del Mar and Wolfsburg and other injury concerns like Jagielka and Cahill look to be set to be starting, which is fantastic.

I’ve decided to set up my setup for the squad for every game this season so for today’s squad -

Barrell’s Starting XI – Howard, Hibbert, Heitinga, Jagielka, Baines, Neville, Arteta, Rodwell, Pienaar, Cahill, Saha

The Bench – Mucha, Gueye, Beckford, Fellaini, Coleman, Bilyaletdinov, Distin

So with confidence I will predict a 3-1 win for Everton today with Goals from Saha, Cahill and Arteta and look forward to listening on the Wireless today, Come On You Blues

Peace

B

One of those particular Evertonians I regularly speak to is a Blue by the name Eric Howell (@Eric_Howell on Twitter) who is an Evertonian living in Kansas City in the States. He and another fellow Blue Peter “Ped” McPartland (@PED7 on Twitter) (A regular face amongst readers of Everton fansite Bluekipper.com) from Old Swan, Liverpool got together and decided to create a unique podcast all about Everton despite being separated by over 4000 miles of land and sea. The show first took place in June this year and was named THE FOLLOWTONIANS PODCAST, a name derived from a Twitter hashtag grouping of Evertonians on Twitter and despite only being 6 Episodes old has received instant recognition amongst fellow Followtonians and has become an instant success.

The show mixes in serious views of the club with comedy Scouse banter courtesy of Ped, a view from Australia courtesy of Jimmy the Convict (@conynejp on Twitter), a monthly taste from “The Reserves Barrel” courtesy of myself, Ped’s rant and the occasional interview with a Everton supporting celebrity or ex Player and is all an all an hour or so of just great Evertonian fueled entertainment.

Seeming as the Followtonians guys gave me a chance at chipping in with a segment on the show I felt it was only right to get them promoted on the blog and try and help get the name out there and maybe introduce a few new Blues who may not tweet or be aware of it all to the podcast. So I recently sat down with Eric via Facebook Chat and did a 4am Caffeine fueled interview with him about everything Followtonian. Here it is -

Hi Eric, Thanks for taking the time out. The Followtonians Podcast has been going for a few months now, but for those who may not have heard the podcast yet or be aware of it what exactly is “Followtonians” and how did it all come about?

ERIC: The podcast is derived from a hashtag created by Tony Watson (works for Everton’s parter Sodexo at Goodison). It is a way to mark tweets so that other Followtonians out there can find you that’s how Ped and I met on twitter. I have done a couple of correspondent pieces for other USA based footy podcasts and wanted to start one of my own about Everton. It was originally just going to be me and I approached Ped about helping out. So we decided to do it together and asked Tony if we could use his hashtag as the name of the show

As listeners will know by now your based in Kansas and Ped is based in Old Swan, so the only way to do a podcast like this is through Skype, How do you find doing the cast like that, is it easy/hard/pain in the arse?

ERIC: Yeah the technology wasn’t too bad once we figured out how we were going to record. We use skype and Audacity with is open source the first episode was ROUGH lots of noise and static, but we worked most of that out by the second episode, the hardest part about the podcast is time zone differences, I am 6 hours behind Ped and we usually record during the week after I get home from work and I put my 14 month old son, Britton, to bed, so it is usually 7:00pm my time which is 1:00am GMT

For First Time Listeners, run through what goes on in the Podcast and what are the different regular segments

ERIC: Well during the season it will be a weekly show. We will start out with any club wide news and a breakdown by Ped and myself about the previous match. Then we will have a report from a correspondent about the upcoming match, Ped and I will get into what we think will happen and give our predictions, The last part of the show we like to get some additional info about other aspects of the club. We have correspondents working on pieces like yourself covering the reserves, the everton ladies, a general observation piece called “WTF: What The Fellaini?” by James “Jimbo The Convict” Coyne from Australia. And we like to end the show with a couple of fun features. There is my Followtonian of the week where I give props to a member of twitter that has helped advance the visibility of the podcast. Then there is Ped’s Rant where we like Ped just say whatever is on his mind and we end with familiar tune that I hear still gives listeners goosebumps when they hair it (Z-Cars)

Oh too right it does, and of course your favourite segment is “Taste from the Reserves Barrell right” haha ?

ERIC: *Eerie facebook silence* Erm yeh….of course

Despite only being a fairly new podcast you’ve already gained a bit of celebrity status in regards to special guests, care to explain how that’s all come about?

ERIC: Yeah I don’t know about celebrity status or anything like that but the great thing about twitter is it is easy to gain access to people on a personal direct level, so we have been introduced to people who support Everton like Andy Burnham (Labour MP), Mike Lewis (guitarist for Lostprophets) and many journos who have access to ex-players, Ped is really working it hard and as long as we are professional and treat people with respect hopefully it will just grow. We are doing it because it is fun and we enjoy it.

Excellent, now as for yourself personally, you hail from Kansas in the States, so I have to ask…Why Everton?

ERIC: I am a Toffee because I am a Kansas City Wizards Supporter. I started following casually because of players like Preki, Mo Johnston and Paul Rideout that played for Everton and then moved on to play for Kansas City in MLS but not until the past 4 or 5 years has information about EPL been readily available in the states which has made it easier to follow teams in England, and I would say that when Tim Howard signed that made it even easier to get info specifically about Everton

Cool, well your podcast partner Ped is known for being a regular face amongst the Bluekipper lot as well as representing Bluekipper FC and 5 a side team and contributing the odd article here and there (and taking over every other piece of media in the world right now haha) as well as his wife Sam who has been known to contribute towards Everton fanzine “When Skies Are Grey”. Outside of the podcast do you do anything similar that is Everton or just generall Football related?

ERIC: Yeah I am a season ticket holder for KC Wizards of MLS, I play in a sunday mens league outdoor and I play indoor once a week as well, I don’t have any blogs or anything other than twitter but I am a correspondent for CSRNusa.com’s Around The League which is a podcast for fans of MLS I am on there once a month or so talking about the Wizards, I have played soccer (yes I said soccer because it is an English term. Created by an Englishman) since I was 5 and it has always stuck with me, I love everything soccer and will even watch Bundeslega if I have to.

Ace, now getting back to the podcast, The Followtonians name/brand (if you will) is easily accessible to almost everyone, even outside of Twitter, where else can people get involved with the goings on of Followtonians?

HAHA Ok mate will do, before I wrap it all up mate, any special mentions or shoutouts you’d like to do?

ERIC: Yeah definitely, big love to my wife who is so far putting up with all of the extra time I am putting in with the podcast, And Ped for his sacrifice of recording in the middle of the night so that I can get some time with Britton, and of course all of the listeners. We havn’t been doing this very long but it has potential of being really cool. We need all the input we can. The slogan of the podcast is Same Club. Different Accents. We know that Evertonia spans the globe. We would love to hear from everyone.

Awesome, thanks for taking the time out to let me rack/wreck your brain haha

ERIC: haha No Probs

So there it is. The Followtonians podcast in a nutshell. I will be regularly updating the blog when the new Episodes come out but for now you should head to THE FOLLOWTONIANS WEBSITE and listen to the old episodes of download them via Itunes, and get adding these guys on Twitter etc. It really is a great podcast and it really is a hell of a team to follow.

Peace
B

Operation Barrell 2.0 has commenced!

Wow, my blog, I forgot I had a blog…well that’s a total lie, I didn’t forget, I’ve just not bloody bothered updating the damn thing. Why though? Why have I not been updating I hear all 3 of you ask? Simple. I’ve had WAY to much bad shit going on in my life in the last few months that I just haven’t found the will to blog, seriously, the last few months have been CRAP, with a capital CRAP!

Since my last update in May my Grandad has been in and out of Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral with Kidney problems, I’ve had to say goodbye to my season ticket at Goodison because I can’t afford a new one, I’ve been stressed to the eyeballs with trying to get myself back into work (yes, I’m still out of work…pathetic I know), My relationship with Kirsty has been on the rocks due to all the crap that’s been going with unemployment/finances etc. Worst of all because I have been stressed to the gills meaning I’ve been overindulging in shitty foods and Larger which has lead to a rather large weight gain.  So it’s fair to say I should be miserable right now yeh? Well…No, not really. I’ve got a tonne of problems but their all fixable and they can all be sorted very easily. I’m actually rather lucky, I don’t have a life threatening disease, im not a heroin addict and I’m not in an uncontrollable amount of debt, so with that in mind it’s time to shape up and commence Operation Barrell 2.0 aka Op: Get a Grip Son!

WHAT IS OPERATION BARRELL 2.0?

To put it simply, it’s the beginning of a fresh start in my life, a time to get my fucking life into shape before it does spiral into a vicious circle and leads to being uncontrollable.

WHAT ARE THE AIMS OF OPERATION BARRELL 2.0?

My biggest aim is to sort out my health. Im currently overweight by quite an amount too. I simply plan on shedding the pounds and getting fit by starting dieting and exercise. No more sugary stuff, no more booze till my birthday (October 25th) and no more junk food. As well as the food cutdown I plan on starting off with doing 30 minutes of Cardio everyday and eventually building on that and doing more. Hopefully then I’ll be healthy and fit for mine and Kirsty’s Wedding which will happen on the 21/07/2012.

Other aims of Op:B2.0 are to sort out my debts and the obvious one to get myself back into work again and just generally get more positive

SO WHERE DOES THE BLOG COME INTO ALL THIS?

Previously my blog has just been about the footy and geeky stuff that I like/dislike as well as moans and groans. None of that is going to change. I’m still going to write about the same crap I used to when I did the blog regularly however I just plan to write stuff a bit more articulately and think before writing AND bring in updates on Operation Barrell 2.0. I’m not trying to inspire anyone I’m just going to get my views/opinions and stories on Battling my own personal demons. Seeming as I’m having a Fresh start at my life I may as well give a fresh start and a new look to my blog.

So this is it, back to blogging, back on the road to getting my shit sorted. Let Operation Barrell 2.0 COMMENCE!

Peace

B

Barrell, the new Milo

So stepping away from Football and getting back to life I thought I would give a nice big update about what’s going on with me personally….not that you care but there you go.

Yes, I am officially as of September heading back to college as a “Mature” (I say that in the LIGHTEST way possible) student of 23 going on 24, but WHY? Very simple, I left school at 16 and have worked since, until the redundancy last year I did quite well for myself and did manage to pick up a couple of NVQ’s along the way, but something has always been missing. There has always been a little part of me that has always wanted to go to University and experience student life as well as Studying and receiving the highest Possible qualification in a certain field.

Unfortunately, because I left school at 16 it means I don’t have the A Level results to go straight into University, I have decent GCSE results mind you but A Level are seen as a must have for Uni. So rather than going through 2 years of AS/A Levels I will be doing the next best thing and that is Studying an Access to Higher Education Course in Humanities and Social Science which will give me the right amount of UCAS points to apply for the course I’ve always wanted to do. I have applied to do the course Part time in the evening and have applied at 3 different colleges, Wirral Metropolitan College, Liverpool Community College and West Cheshire College. So if all goes well I will be enrolling in one of the three come September this year.

Why Humanities though? Well part of the Humanities course involves studying creative writing and thereby is essential for the course I want to do at University. Journalism. Yes, I know what your thinking. Looking back at this blog I’m not what you would call the most “articulate” of writers. However, this is just a blog, this is where I moan about shit that pisses me off and review stuff I buzz about, It’s just a personal lark. When it comes to Journalism theres more to it than just writing and for me Journalism and Broadcasting is all I’ve ever wanted to do since I was 14 but never gone forward with it until now. This is my way of having another shot at something I missed out on years ago and giving myself a second chance.

I’ll keep you all updated with progress in the future. I have other big “LIFE” news but that can wait till another day.

Peace

B

Smug, South Yorkshire, United supporting Bellend, Howard "The Prick" Webb

Right, thought I’d get straight into it without pussyfooting around. I’m not going to talk about the Everton v Stoke match in the regular detail I would because it was all in all a crap game. No offence to Stoke but both teams were crap and neither side looked to break in the game until the event in question occured. I am, however, going to say what’s on my and anyone else who believes Howard Webb is a complete bellend’s mind.

WHAT A PRICK!! this man who for some STUPID reason has been given the award for “Englands Number 1 Referee” and will be representing England in this summers World Cup, has officially royally fucked up any chances of Everton qualifying for Europe next season with ANOTHER crap decision. But it’s not just me as an Everton fan who will shout this. Many a football fan have seen this baldy eggheaded tit make massive STUPID refereeing decisions this season which may have cost their team vital points.

I’m not going to go into detail about the Jagielka goal at the weekend against Stoke because no doubt you have all seen this and have made up your own mind but to me he is completely wrong and has yet again got the self satisfying feeling of waking up the next morning and see his smug cunt face plastered all over the newspapers because of a controversial decision he has made. Christ, he even got interviewed after Match of The Day, how fucking smug do you want to get.

To end this simply, I truely hope he goes to the World Cup and from the bottom of my heart HOPE he makes a lot of STUPID calls and throws his Refereeing Career down the swanny and finds himself Ref’ing Blue Square matches or even Sunday League or retires completely and finds his way back to The South Yorkshire Police Force (Anti- Scouse Scum). To Evertonians he has now joined the likes of Mark Battenburg and Clive “Satan” Thomas where his name is now MUD at Goodison Park. Rant Over. Mr Webb the first ever Barrell’s Official Dickhead of the Week award  officially goes to you.

Peace

B

Fulham FC..The Cottagers.....Not THAT kind of Cottaging

It is still possible to pip the Redshite to Europe, the chance is slim, but there is still a mathematical chance depending on results. So today’s game was a crucial one that was a MUST WIN. Our opponents today were European shock contenders Fulham. Not exactly the easiest team to play against at such a crucial part of the season however things were looking in our favour from the get go today. Fulham were without Former Blue Andy Johnson, Bobby Zamora and Damien Duff and Roy Hodgson would no doubt be concentrating all his efforts on their Thursday night Europa League return leg against Ze German side Hamburger, thereby a makeshift squad was probably going to be on the cards. However, Everton are still without key players No Screech still and now Johnny Heitinga is out after fracturing his meta..something bone against Villa last week so alot of chopping and changing was going to be required to obtain an advantage over Fulham.

The game itself started off quite well, Everton looked the better side and were completely dominant in the first half hour. Billy came close with a shot that hit the post as well as the Yak who played really well suprisingly. Whenever Fulham looked to make a break their attempts were easily foiled by some WORLD CLASS (and I don’t say that often) defending from….TONY HIBBERT…Yes…Hibbo…In my eyes the man of the match. Everton were looking comfortable but just weren’t able to break through. Unfortunately in the 34th minute it was the coachload of Fulham fans that got the upper hand (literally must have only been 100 Fulham Fans there…if that…Pathetic!) when a STUPID backpass of Titus Bramble proportion was made to Tim Howard by Leighton Baines OF ALL PEOPLE, only for Nevland to slot away easily and put the cottagers 1-0 up, which it remained until half time.

One clumsy mistake, surely we can get back into this. Obviously, Moyesy thought so to as he made a tactical sub at half time taking off Billy (who has had a bit of poor season this year) for Victor Anichebe who I have personally slated a few times. Good choice for a sub as it was thanks to Victor in the 48th minute we got back on level terms, a great ball in from Peanuts which saw the Yak attempt an overhead kick (Mega LOLZ!) and Victor heading it past Mark Schwarzer into the bottom left hand corner. 1-1 and Back to Business.

Is It a Bird is it a...No it's just the Yak falling arse over tit and Victor putting it away.

Throughout the rest of the game Anichebe continued to impress, with some brilliant runs causing all kinds of hell for the Fulham defense. However the rest of the 2nd half was very dull and repetetive. Fulham only had one main chance to break which was thankfully cocked up by Okaka but Fulham just looked impossible to break down defensively. Moyesy even tried by getting 2 up front when he brought Saha on, unfortunately Saha seems to be massively off his game at the moment and wasn’t able to make a difference. It would require something super special or one hell of a stroke of luck to stop this going to a bore draw and killing off Europe for good and that stroke of luck came in the 93rd minute AGAIN just like last week.  Yet again we have Timmy the Blue Kangaroo to thank when he was brought down for a stonewall penalty at the death by Chris Baird (who was lucky not receive his marching orders) and The Best Little Spaniard Mikel, cooly and collectively, sent Mark Schwarzer the wrong way for the winner. 2-1. It wasn’t pretty but it was 3 points nethertheless.

FOLLOW FOLLOW FOLLOW!!

So what does that mean for Everton and Europa League now.

Well unfortunately The Shite stuffed the Dingles 4-0 at Turfmoor today which sent them down into the Championship next season, However Birmingham lost to neighbours Villa which means Brum cannot catch us up. We are officially 5 points behind the Shite with 2 games left to go. That seventh spot is the last Europa league spot and there are 2 ways of getting. One good way and One Shit Way.

The Good Way – The Shite get beat by Dynamo Chel$ki and ‘Ull City and we beat Stoke and Pompey, The Shite then get knocked out by Athletico Madrid in the Europa League, We finish 7th, they finish 8th, We Go to Europe, They Don’t, Stevie G Fucks off to Spain, Rafa gets a job in a Kebab house and The Lady boy finally admits he is a girl and is forced to play Womens Football. Happy Days!

The Bad Way – The Shite pip us to 7th, We can’t get into Europe unless they win the Europa League and end up playing Champions League football next season instead, which means The Top 4 still get Champions League, Villa and Spurs are already guaranteed Europa League (due to Carling Cup Final and Pompey not being allowed in) and we would join them because the Shite will be playing Champions League football as the Representative Winners of The Europa League. Not So Happy Days!

So unfortunately all eyes are on Rafa’s SQUAADDDD over the next few weeks and hoping that Dynamo Chel$ki and ‘Ull can do us a favour. It’s slim…But this is Everton and stranger things have happened.

Peace

B

This Week I have Mostly been eating...Bourbon Biscuits

Welcome to a new feature in my blog, THIS WEEK I HAVE MOSTLY BEEN.. (or TWIHMB for category shortening) yes it’s one of them new features I was going on about the other day. It will be my regular Sunday end of the week analysis on what I have mostly been Watching, Playing, Reading and Listening to in the week gone by. Good eh, a nice simple summary with loads of Youtube vids and pictures chucked in and of course a Fast Show reference, Crackin.

So This Week I’ ave mostly been…

WATCHING (TV)-

The Pacific Mondays at 9pm GMT SKY Premiere (Ch.301)

It has finally arrived. After such a LONG time waiting for this programme to hit our screens on Easter Monday the first 2 Episodes of The Pacific where finally aired on UK TV on Sky Premiere and trust me it has not, so far, disappointed. I was a huge fan of Band Of Brothers and have it on Blu Ray so when I heard they were doing another Band Of Brothers style Mini Series my arm was twisted straight away. For those of you who have watched Band Of Brothers but not The Pacific yet PLEASE NOTE this is NOT Band of Brothers 2, it’s a completely different storyline and is based of the old journals and stories of the men who fought against The Japanese along the Pacific islands. There are no references (well so far) to the Parachute regiment from Band of Brothers or anything like that. Even though it is set out to be like Band of Brothers it couldn’t be any further from the Story line of B.O.B which is what I like about it. Episode 4 hits the UK tomorrow and I have it all setup on my HD Box ready to record, so good. Enjoy the trailer -

WATCHING (MOVIE) –

All Work and No Play....

No trip to the cinema this week despite wanting to check out that “Kick Ass” movie however I did stumble upon one of my favourite Classic Horror films of all time whilst flicking through the Sky Box the other day. The Shining is due to celebrate it’s 30TH yes 30th Anniversary next month. Thirty years on and Kubrick’s movie production of the Classic Stephen King novel is still as chilling, eerie and as gripping as ever, It’s no wonder this film is still regarded as one of the Original Horror Masterpieces. I don’t think I need to explain anything about this film, it’s just a classic and without doubt one of Jack Nicholson’s finest roles, if not his greatest.

LISTENING TO –

AGAIN….No explanation needed. Sabbath’s Master of Reality has been the centre of my musical attention this week both at home and in the Car. I’m lucky my Uncle David got me into Sabbath when I was just 12 and beginning to explore music properly and Yes…I was a smelly at school…a smelly with good taste though.

PLAYING –

I lent this off my friend recently and my god I was hooked straight away. You’ve probably all seen the trailers on TV and got the wrong impression from it the way I did. At first I thought it was going to be like GTA but your a cop how  I was suprised when I booted the game up and got playing. The game is an Interactive RPG style drama/thriller which apparently models itself after “Film Noir” (ya know like old 40′s/50′s crime dramas) Based around four characters each involved personally with the Mystery of the “Origami Killer”. The Origami Killer is a serial killer who uses extended periods of rainfall to kill his young male victims by drowning them. The four main characters all have their paths to take but you have the option of choosing what path they go down.

The Game is absolutely amazing and I was hooked on it and like anyone else who played the game was completely and utterly gobsmacked with the twist at the end when I completed it. If you have a PS3 I would seriously reccomend it, great graphics, great plot, great attention to detail however the gameplay itself can be a bit tedious when performing the interactions which is why I’m giving it a 9/10 rather than a full 10, the interactions on the controller on occasion can do your nut in but other than that a Brilliant game.

READING –

So I haven’t read any books at all recently which is unusual for me but Kirsty recently bought me a copy of Salinger’s “Catcher In The Rye” which I am quite ashamed to say I have never actually read before. So that is sat on my bedside table waiting for me and I’m hoping it’ll have the same affect on me as it has had on many apart from you know…that guy who shot John Lennon. It has come highly recommended to me by many so I’m hoping for a good read this week.

So yeh there we go, that is my first THIS WEEK I’AVE MOST BEEN… done and dusted, more new features still to come on my blog including one called “DICKHEAD OF THE WEEK” look out for that, but for now.

Peace

B

Lord Chancellor and Grade A Gobshite, Jack Straw an Avid Rover!

As I previously stated I’ve been avoiding the world of blogging for several reasons. Firstly, I have been busy organizing my wedding and secondly I have been blog browsing for new ideas/ ways to slyly rip off others ideas without being too obvious to try and make my blog a bit more interesting, those ideas will be revealed in the coming days with NEW regular features…watch this space…or don’t sup to you.

For now though the Football. The football has been fucking shite of late, 3 draws in a row for Everton two of which have seen Everton take the lead on two occasions in both matches against both West Ham at home and Villa away only to throw it away and almost kill our chance of European Football for next season. Surely it was time to get our shit sorted against Blackburn and get ourselves back in the frame for a European place. However, Blackburn was going to be toughy, I won’t lie. They’re nothing fantastic Blackburn but have only been beaten twice at home this season and Fat Sam’s boys have been on a run of late so it was never going to be easy. It doesn’t help that Everton are still without Big Mo and Dan The Goose and now have injury concerns with Rodders and Johnny Heitinga and Leon but needless to say Moyesy has been in this situation before and always has a trick up his sleeve.

The trip to Ewood Park was one I have been looking forward to all season, Evertonians travel in their drones up the M6 for this one and Ewood, even though it only holds 30 odd thousand, usually homes about 5,000 away fans, an allocation Everton easily take full advantage of. Unfortunately, no trip to Darwin for me this season I have found myself completely and utterly brassic…cheers Recession. After listening to the match on the radio I’m pretty gutted I didn’t go cos it sounded like a beauty of a match.

Everton got the ball rolling straight away when The Best Little Spaniard was brought down in the box after just 3 minutes and was able to cooly slot away the Penalty to put Everton in the lead, for the rest of the half Everton sounded in complete control. The BBC website even described Everton’s pass and move style as something Barcelona esque…fucking hell, must be doing something right. Blackburn from the sound of things didn’t make life too easy near the end of the first period and had a few attacks that were easily thwarted by Tony Hibbo and Bainesy. A goal up at half time and confidence shining through.

Mikel puts away the Penalty for 1-0

The second half started similar to the first from the sound of things, Everton dominating and not allowing Blackburn to break, Bainesy came close by shattering the woodwork but the 2nd goal just looked elusive. Then, and this is where a problem has become of late, 70 minutes in and looking TOO comfortable, Everton went to sleep and allowed Rovers to break through, Selgado and Nzonzi brought pressure on the defence and out of nowhere Nzonzi bombs one in from 30 yards bringing Rovers back into the game…another slip up that leads to a draw…it had it written I can say that.

It was time for a change, time to push forward and get a 2nd and who better to do so than…oh great, The Yak. I’ll tell you what, I rip this fella to shreds sometimes and call him the laziest man alive, but what a Substitution from Moyesy. The Yaks first touch of the game within 10 seconds of being on..GOAL.. 2-1 up superb. Yehhh that was until we fucked it up again with 7 minutes to go and just like West Ham last week, within 2 minutes of scoring the “winner” , or so we thought, our defense gets lazy allows Jason Roberts to break and brings the game to 2-2…superb another game where we go 2-1 up with minutes remaining and we fuck it up, this is becoming a regular thing. You can kiss Europe goodbye….or can you?

No, I think it’s fair to say the fight for Europe is still back on as in the dying minutes of the match, The Yak takes a brilliant turn around the Rovers defence and places it in the 6 yard box for non other than Superman himself, the Ozzie Kangaroo, Tim Cahill. Goal 3-2 to the Blues, Europe is definitely still upon the horizon.

Oh Timmy we feel the same way about you too, you Brilliant man. Timmy seals the win in the 92nd minute

Don’t get me wrong I’m delighted with that result but it’s not good enough, Everton need to stop being contempt with just a one goal advantage. It’s a Redshite tactic and unfortunately for us we don’t have multi-millionaire “stars” playing for us (neither do they for that matter) and we can’t afford to just be happy with the one goal we need to kill the game and even when we do kill it we need to keep on kicking shit out of it without giving the other side a chance, if the games against Blackburn today, Villa or West Ham have taught us anything it is that point entirely.

So it’s 8th Place for us now, 1 point behind Villa who play tomorrow and unfortunately still have the upper hand over us with another game in hand, I can only hope they did what they did last season and royally fuck up their last few games giving Everton the chance to steal that last Europa League spot, It’s slim, but stranger things have happened.

Fulham at home next, not easy but faith is still strong in the Everton camp. COYB

Peace

B

Lest We Forget, Justice For the 96

So I have been recently avoiding my blog due to organising my wedding and various other tasks, however I felt today of all days is the perfect day to update my blog with a fitting tribute. I know that I’m an Evertonian and I do tend to write alot of anti-Liverpool blog entries but today I write this entry as an Evertonian Second but a Scouser First. On the 15/04/1989 the City of Liverpool waited with excitement as both resident clubs of the great city were playing FA Cup Semi final matches with a possible all Merseyside final looming over their heads. Everton would travel to Villa Park that day to take on Norwich City whilst Liverpool travelled to Hillsbrough, the home of Sheffield Wednesday to take on Nottingham Forrest. Thousands of reds and Blues travelled to their matches, however 96 Reds never returned home.

Liverpool is a City that has been torn apart by tragedy and Political corruption over the years, but through it all as a proud people, us Scouser, both Red and Blue, have United through it all and stood side by side. Despite the heckling, cliche insults and vile banter we get thrown at us, us Scousers are the salt of the Earth and to us it is just water off a ducks back.

Everton and Liverpool stand side by side today to remember friends, family, loved ones and just generally fellow Scousers, who travelled to Sheffield that day and never returned home. Justice has never been served for those people, The Yorkshire Police still blame the fans despite the evidence of poor crowd control handling and The SCUM newspaper has never TRUELY apologised for the Vile, despicable and derogatory comments made of the dead and People representing the City of Liverpool that day.

It doesn’t matter what team you support Everton, Liverpool, Yeovil, Brighton, Accrington or Even Rapid Vienna remember today the 96 ORDINARY football fans that went to see the team they loved and never returned home to their friends, families and loved ones.

From myself and all at Everton Football Club, We Will Never forget, We will always seek Justice, Nil Satis Nisioptimum and You’ll Never Walk Alone.

Evertonians for Justice (Top Right) - Everton fans display a J4T96 banner at Villa Park last season, ironically were Everton played that day 21 Years ago, (Bottom Left) - Liverpool Fans thank Evertonians in the Park End of Goodison during a Goodison darby the following season. (Bottom Right) A Red and a Blue hold a banner together to pay tribute to the 96 at Goodison Park

Peace

B

P.S – Please Note – any derogatory comments, anti-Scouse banter or general disrespect for the the dead will not be tolerated. Your comment will be removed and your IP Address blocked. Please show some respect

P.P.S – Don’t buy The SUN newspaper, 21 years and still no apology, Boycott the Scum!

My last (proper) position was, as you may know, a Retail Development Executive for Kodak (the camera company), great job, great pay, company car, phone, laptop etc. Loved my job, unfortunately getting back into a role like that is not the easiest of tasks. However, I thought I had hit the jackpot the other day when I found a company were looking for a person to fill a similar kind of role, except it was office based as well as field based and the salary was alot higher than that at Kodak in fact they advertised £24k basic with an OTE Bonus Structure in place as well. I thought sod it, I’ll give it a go. So I contact the company via email with a copy of my most upto date CV. After about an hour the company ring me back and offer me an interview…crackin! I thought. So today was my interview day..great….or not in this case.

Last night I decided to do some research into the company and couldn’t find a single bean on them, very odd. I knew they were a new and “upcoming” company but still you would have thought they would have a website at least. Nethertheless, I thought I’ll just go for it. So I wake up nice and fresh this morning, get showered and get into my new suit (which the Job Centre paid for..nice to know I’m getting a little something back from all the tax and National Insurance I’ve paid over the years) jump onto the 437 at Upton and head for Liverpool City Centre.

My interview was to take place at a popular Hotel chain that had a city centre branch with Executive Suites (I won’t say which hotel). I get to the hotel and ask the girl at reception where the company representative was…she had NO CLUE as to what I was on about…not a good start. She had no record of this company, and said there is a chance you might have to meet them in the bar, it’s on the 2nd floor. So I head upto the bar, to find it practically empty bar 2 people who I could tell worked for Merseyrail as it was written on their ID’s and I wasn’t being interviewed by Merseyrail. So I head to the bar, order a coffee and wait at the table. Finish my coffee and read some shit red bar rag like the Daily Mirror or whatever It was that was left on  the table. Still No interviewer…I’d been waiting for half an hour. By this time, I’m getting more concerned than annoyed as I’m beginning to think I’m in the wrong hotel. So I get on the phone to the company who are interviewing me and ask what is going on. The girl explains to me “We emailed you last night, your interviewer’s name is N (shortened for privacy reasons) he should be at the bar” I had not received such an email, and STILL haven’t I head back to the bar and still absolutely no sign of anybody except the 2 people from Merseyrail.

So I sit down for another 20 minutes and just as I begin to loose patience and get upto leave a bloke wearing a scruffy jumper and kecks walks in with a bag and sits down and pulls out a laptop out of his bag. The following conversation is not 100% accurate but near enough-

Me – “Hi are you N, are you interviewing today?”

N- “Yes I am, and you are?”

Me- “Chris Barrell, I was meant to be having an interview almost an hour ago”

N – “Oh right, Ok Chris (looks through paper work), I’m sorry Chris I don’t have anything written down for you, who organised the interview with you”

Me – “I spoke to E from your company last week, she said 11.30am, (Hotel Brand name here), Liverpool City Centre”

N – “Oh Ok, just take a seat I’ll sort this paperwork out and be with you in 5 minutes.”

So already this dude has no friggen clue who I am, and is an hour late, good orginazation skills no? It gets worse.

N- “Okay, Chris we’ll begin now. Firstly, Can I see your CV please”

Me – “Erm, No, you should have been sent it already, I sent it to E from your company TWICE last week and she confirmed receipt of it on BOTH occasions”

N – (Looking Puzzled) “Oh right, I see….erm well can you go over your CV with me here”

I then begin to explain my CV, My Blue chip credentials, My B2B track record, Qualifications and my highly regarded references, ya know, trying to sell myself.

N – “Ok, that’s impressive, Let me tell you about the job in a bit more detail. Basically, we are an up and coming Broadband and Telephone called (SOME COMPANY I’VE NEVER HEARD OF), we currently own 9% of the broadband and phone market (BULLSHIT) and are looking to build up a team with great sales experience and enthusiasm to join our INTERNAL sales team”

Me – “Right, I’m sorry but it says on your add your looking for Field Development Managers, Is this a direct sales job? And is this a cold calling system job?”

N – “Predominately, yes it is, 50/50 with B2B and B2C but we are hoping to build up a field team in the next 2 to 3 years”

Me – “Right, but that’s not what it says in your ad, may I ask what the wage is please, because it says here it is £24k basic with an OTE system in place and I’ve never heard of a cold calling job especially one that deals with B2C paying that much”

N – “Well the basic is not very high however there is a great bonus scheme involved”

Me – “So it’s not £24k per annum?”

N – “It can be if targets are hit”

Me – “So what is the basic, cos I’m not really concerned about a bonus scheme and Im after a salary job and not a commission job”

N – “Erm it’s around £11k p/a at 16 hours a week”

Me – “Excuse Me, did you say £11k and 16 hours. It says here £24k BASIC and 40 Hours and NOTHING about Cold Calling.”

N – “Erm…”

Me – “Im sorry, but you have taken me for a complete ride here, you have completely misrepresented yourself in your ad, you turned up to this interview nearly an hour late, leaving me waiting around, I know I’m unemployed but I have much better things to do with my time. I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but if you ask my last 2 managers from  previous jobs they will tell you I’m a credit to work with and come very highly regarded from them and they are BLUECHIP companies. In all fairness mate I wouldn’t stack shelves in Netto for that wage. So we’ll say goodbye here, thanks for wasting my time and best of luck finding someone gullible to fill this position. Oh and by the way, I reccomend you take your ad down off the DIRECT GOV website (ya know a government website) before your reported, just a word of advice”

I walk out the building, with steam coming out my ears, absolutely FUMING. What a Joke, the worst part is they rang me back asking me to reconsider and maybe come for a 2nd interview, ARE THEY TAKING THE PISS. Fuck, I’m desperate to get a new job, but I’m not that desperate. What a joke. So back to it again, more jobhunting, more searching, I know THAT perfect job is out there somewhere, I’ll just keep on trying and finally get off this horrible Jobseekers Allowance crap.

Peace

B