Sean Dyche’s Everton are now an effective unit when they have a lead to protect and boy did they prove it against Brentford.
As Everton’s official statistician and regular guest on the ECHO’s Royal Blue podcast Gavin Buckland pointed out on Saturday night, Dwight McNeil’s goal against the Bees after 35 seconds was the club’s earliest winner ever at Goodison Park. Given that the Blues have been playing at the first purpose-built football ground in England for over 130 years, that’s quite an achievement when you consider that for all she’s experienced, ‘The Grand Old Lady’ had never actually seen a game quite like this.
In total there were 11 additional minutes played in the match (five in the first half and six in the second) but after getting their noses in front in the first minute, the Blues were able to hold their nerve and keep out everything a dangerous Brentford side who (along with Borussia Dortmund in Germany and France’s Stade de Reims, coached by 30-year-old Belgian-born Englishman Will Still) went into this fixture as one of only three teams in Europe’s big five leagues unbeaten this calendar year. Under a manager who is as ‘Frank’ as his name, the west London outfit have proven to be a breath of fresh air since making their return to the top flight for the first time since 1947 last season, and in many ways their canny recruitment, polishing up relatively unheard of rough diamonds into leading Premier League performers has been in stark contrast to the profligacy and chronic underachievement during the current regime at Everton that had fans protesting in the streets outside the ground again before kick-off.
