There are plenty of ways to win a football match, but few can beat the exhilaration of a last-second winner, away from home, in a game that had threatened to offer yet more evidence that Everton still do not possess the quality needed to play in the Champions League.
When Tom Cleverley’s looping header dropped underneath the crossbar to shatter Newcastle’s brave defence in the third minute of stoppage time on Boxing Day, it was arguably the most important goal his side have scored this season.
If finding a way to win is the essence of sport, being able to win games when you are playing badly is normally the benchmark of champions. It is an elusive quality that tends to evade all but the very best of football teams. Everton will not win the Premier League. They are not title-winning material – not yet and probably not ever given the financial pressure that will come to sell their best players – but they have had a different, even more damaging problem in their pursuit of a top-four finish.
At times this season, Roberto Martínez’s side have not even been able to win when they are playing well. Everton can dominate games, control the ball and create chances, but they do not always collect three points when they do so. This looked like being another case in point, after Romelu Lukaku had missed three good chances and Ramiro Funes Mori had been denied by a brilliant, Gordon Banksesque save from Newcastle goalkeeper Rob Elliot, until Cleverley guided his header over the heads of the home defenders as Newcastle struggled to clear a corner.
“I don’t think anyone would disagree that over the last four games we’ve deserved better results,” said Cleverley. “Probably three wins, but we’ve not been picking up too many wins, so Newcastle will hopefully be a catapult into Monday and the New Year.
“It’s a 1-0 win away from home, where you’ve got to be gritty, on a heavy pitch and it just shows you that we can grind it out. Hopefully that gives us confidence and another dimension to our game, to really challenge in that top six.”
The defeat stung Newcastle more than most during a miserable 2015. The Magpies have won just four league games in front of their own supporters in 12 months and Steve McClaren has had little impact improving results.
His side were brave, organised and resilient. All the things they have been accused of lacking, but it only takes you so far. The game plan was simple, defend deep and in numbers, but as it had against Liverpool and Tottenham, it almost worked.
Newcastle clung on, rode their luck and with Elliot once again in superb form, they may well have snatched a winning goal in the second half. Aleksandar Mitrovic missed a wonderful chance with a header and Georginio Wijnaldum was denied by a fine save from Tim Howard minutes later.
Had either gone in, McClaren would not have sounded so desperate when he claimed his side had been “magnificent”. The former England manager continues to flounder on Tyneside. He talks a lot about progress, but the brutal truth is that he took over a team that finished fifth from bottom last season, one that spent £54 million on new players in the summer, and they are currently two places below where they finished last term. No matter how you try to spin it, that does not represent progress.
For Moussa Sissoko, there is only one solution. More money has to be spent in the January window, because this squad could well do down in its present state. “The owner and the staff will be making decisions,” said Sissoko. “They will decide if they need to bring players in or not. If they are able to bring good players in, we will be happy about that.”
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