February 06
Despite being the shortest month of the year, February was packed full of incident for Everton.
It saw the club depart the FA Cup, lose their unbeaten league record of 2006 and also record two characterful victories at Goodison Park.
First up was the challenge of Manchester City. City were flying under the stewardship of Stuart Pearce, and eventually lost out by just the one goal.
David Weir was the unlikely hero as a scramble in the box eventually resulted in a goal off the skipper's knee.
What followed in the FA Cup fourth round replay at Stamford Bridge was even more dramatic though.
Richard Wright was injured whilst warming up, meaning that rookie Iain Turner was handed a debut against the Champions.
And while he far from struggled, Chelsea's class showed as they easlily defeated Everton 4-1, with Mikel Arteta scoring the consolation from the penalty spot.
All this meant that the events of the home match against Blackburn three days later were even more notable.
Turner, still deputising for Wright, was sent off just eight minutes into his Premiership bow, to be replaced by 19-year-old John Ruddy.
Ten-man Everton showed great resilience though, and a well placed header from James Beattie handed the Blues a 1-0 win.
It was perhaps inevitable that there would be a low to equal this high, and it duly came at Newcastle. The Magpies were rejuvenated under Glenn Roeder and administered a 2-0 defeat on Everton that they scarcely deserved to round out an eventful month.
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