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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
James McNeill

'We have been let down' - Everton fans left 'without hope' after Southampton defeat

It was a sombre mood outside Goodison Park head of Everton's game with Southampton.

As the cold January weather sets in the Blues once again find themselves in a relegation battle and from fans outside the ground the message was clear they have "had enough".

The Blues are without a win in their last eight games in all competitions and Frank Lampard’s side sat 18th in the Premier League table going into their match with rock-bottom Saints. Meanwhile, resentment towards owner Farhad Moshiri has grown since his appearance on talkSPORT on Thursday.

Everton would go on to lose to Southampton, leaving them level on points with Nathan Jones' side and off the bottom of the table only on goal difference.

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Speaking to the ECHO before the match Shawn, 25, who was at the game with his friend Isaac said: "We have regressed and there is a culture within the club that is below the level that is expected. The mentality of winning and playing for the badge is not the same and it is not what it used to be.

"I have been coming here since I was five and I remember the days of players who would fight for the club now we have mercenaries. Now it is like they are just playing FIFA with the club like it's just a game."

Isaac said: "Last season we were doing so bad and we were all here with flares and gave it everything. Now if you look around we don't have the fight anymore and I don't think people have got that in them again. They don't deserve it."

Today Everton announced that the board of directors did not attend the club’s game with Southampton following reports of a “real and credible threat to their safety”. The club issued a statement explaining the warning follows “malicious and unacceptably threatening correspondence”.

Supporters protested inside the ground after the game to voice their concerns over the situation at the club. Fan campaign group NSNOW took to social media to "condemn" any threats to "any Everton employee and/or officials & directors of the club."

However, Moshiri's comments have sparked controversy among Blues and for veteran supporter Alan Buckley it was a step too far. Alan has been coming to Goodison for 64 years and remarked he was here before "everyone started sitting down."

He said: "In 1958 I first started and I love this club but I'm fed up, the football is bad. Something is not right, money has been wasted and we have been let down. It is shocking.

"There are a lot of games left but we have to start playing football and I don't know if we will. Moshiri said that appointments were driven by the support but it is not my fault we are here.

"This is the worst I have ever seen us there just seems to be no hope and it is a disgrace. We have had some bad times but this is awful."

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