It is hard to believe that only seven days have passed since Gary Speed's death plunged the footballing community first into shock, then horror, and finally a cold period of reflection.
At Goodison Park the last of the late Wales manager’s former clubs paid a poignant tribute to their one time captain. Everton entered the pitch, not to the sound of their traditional Z-Cars theme, but instead the Welsh national anthem before former teammates including Duncan Ferguson and David Unsworth joined Speed’s father on the pitch for an ovation worthy of the boyhood blue.
It was the first time in 18 years that Everton have taken to the turf without their famous jingle but the quirk of that fact was followed by the continuation of a worrying trend for David Moyes.
An inauspicious opening on Merseyside made for uninspiring viewing until a goal every bit as ugly as the football handed Stoke the opener.
Everton failed to clear their first set piece of the game, a corner born of a bad Leighton Baines mistake, and Dean Whitehead fired a shot into the crowded box. First to react was Robert Huth who stuck out a toe and poked home the opener.
That goal made it nine times in ten home games that Everton have conceded first. Moyes is used to his side starting slow by now, but shorn of goalscoring options as Everton were today, Louis Saha a noteable absentee due to a thigh strain picked up in training, coming from behind is something Everton simply cannot maintain.
And that proved the case here as a combination of Stoke’s steadfast obstinacy and Everton’s sheer lack of invention saw a dank afternoon at Goodison play out without any team looking like adding to the score.
That the home side enjoyed the lion’s share of possession only served to expose their attacking deficiencies. The deployment of 19-year-old Apostolos Vellios up front may have been just deserts for the young Greek after his late goal at Bolton last week, but an ineffective performance alongside Tim Cahill showed why, as a £250,000 academy buy, he is still some way from being able to be relied upon.
Cahill himself is now into his 12th month without a league goal for Everton, and the absence of form as well as an inability to improve his squad were points Moyes alluded to after this, his team’s fifth home defeat of the season.
He said: “We huffed and puffed a little bit.
“It’s always tough, you need goalscorers and you need creators of goals, but we know that.
“Our loss was down to our inability to make, take and create. I’ve said that this season, we’re shot, undoubtedly we’re shot.
“The expectation is that we should always be winning these sorts of games. But if you look at it, Stoke have spent well in the market, they’ve bought some players and improved their team, they had Peter Crouch up front today, we’ve not at this moment in time.
“But that’s not what it’s about, it’s about eleven players today, we didn’t win the game and they did because they scored the goal which counted.”
The defeat sees Everton drop two places to tenth with Stoke leapfrogging their hosts. If Moyes was mindful of a gulf in options this week, his envy will be ten fold next when he takes his side to an in from Arsenal who have made strides since the big money acquisition of one time Toffees creator Mikel Arteta.
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Everton (4-4-1-1): Howard, Hibbert (Gueye 83), Baines, Heitinga, Jagielka, Bilyaletdinov (Rodwell 63), Osman, Fellaini, Coleman, Cahill, Vellios (Stracqualursi 76)
Subs: Mucha, Stracqualursi, Distin, Neville, Gueye, Barkley, Rodwell
Stoke City (4-4-2): Sorenson (Begovic 73), Huth, Whelan, Wilson, Shawcross, Whitehead, Walters, Crouch, Etherington (Upson 90+3), Shotton, Woodgate (Wilkinson 53)
Subs: Begovic, Jones, Fuller, Upson, Wilkinson, Jerome, Palacios
Goals: Huth 15
Ref: Lee Mason
Att:33,219
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