O’Neill’s Everton Verdict

Martin O’Neill has described todays attacking display as an ‘absolute dream’ as we took a point in a thrilling 3-3 draw against Everton.

Easter commitments got in the way of me watching the match today, but judging by the comments on the message board we can consider ourselves unlucky to not have taken all 3 points, although it appears on reflection a draw was the fair result even if it was the result we didn’t want.

Speaking on the official site O’Neill explained the obvious, that taking 4th place now was going to be extremely difficul, but that we were in no way going to give up on the fight.

‘I thought we were fantastic. Going forward we were an absolute dream but defensively, we were not-so-clever.

‘It was high entertainment and a fantastic game – and we should have won it at the death with a great chance.

‘We fought back from both 2-0 and 3-1 down. In terms of character and determination, in the run we have been in, it was fantastic.

‘We went to Old Trafford and played how we have most of the season away from home. We got great confidence from that and took it on this afternoon – at least going forward. However, we conceded three goals at home. You shouldn’t need to score four goals to win a game at home.

‘In terms of catching Arsenal, we are certainly not going to down tools and give up the fight.

‘If I look at it after their win at Wigan, I accept it is going to be hard. But we won’t give up because Arsenal still have some very difficult games to play.

‘I certainly haven’t given up hope – not at all.’

Nice to see our attackers back in the grove, but as O’Neill rightly points out we should not be conceeding 3 goals at home if we have dreams of the Champions League.

It has to be addressed, but I’m thankful of attacking form is coming back now. What we need are more performances like this to tally with 3 points taken in games.