Everton vs Citeh

I think they'd have scored eventually, whether the penalty was given or not. Still enraged by the decision though. Honestly, if the missus decided to sit down and watch the game with us tonight, and asked me to explain the handball law as it's currently applied, I wouldn't have been able to do it. Not even if I Googled the specific law relating to handball, as I don't think it would bear any resemblance to many of the decisions that are given.

I thought we looked leggy in the second half and once they stepped up their game, there wasn't much we could do about it. Not Pickford's best game, but credit to Branthwaite for the last goal as he was on a yellow, and Pickford put him in a position there were he could have instinctively dragged Silva back, got a second yellow and therefore a ban. Small mercies.

I'd rather focus on something positive after that game - specifically the full backs. Patterson has improved leaps and bounds as a defender and Myko has improved as a footballer, he's night and day compared to 12 months ago. Stick with them as our starting full backs now. Patterson in particular will only get better with games.

I can't be bothered to dig out the posts, but after we made our shocking start to the season I remember commenting on how scary the December fixture list looked, and that we could be tailed off at the bottom going into the new year. Well, we're not tailed off, we're not even in the bottom 3, and we've had 10 points taken off us that I didn't bargain for in September. So the future, on the pitch at least, looks bright, and that horrible-looking December is now in the rear-view mirror.