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Radio City's Alan Irwin

Posts: 61

Alan Irwin is the Voice of Everton for Liverpool's Radio City 96.7. An experienced radio journalist, Alan commentates on all of the Blues' matches and is well placed to provide insightful blogs on the progress of the team.

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I'm currently hosting City Talk's evening sports show on 105.9 and it's a role that makes you realise there are other sports away from football!

However, I can't help being constantly drawn towards our primary sport (football obviously!) during my conversations throughout the day with my producer.

There's a fair bit of work that goes into the show and we try to please as many sports fans as we can through varying our topics. We're constantly on the lookout for fresh stories, ideas and issues.

Obviously we do have to cover all the main sports stories but I can be often heard saying to my producer "Billy in Bootle's not gonna be interested in that - he want's to hear the latest from this football mad city of Liverpool"

I am wrong? Do we overdose on our football? Do we look for stories that aren't really there? Do we deliberately instigate debate for the sake of it?

As far as I'm concerned there's always plenty to debate on Merseyside when it comes to football and that's what the vast majority of people can be heard talking about in pubs and clubs around the City.

This week has been no different, although the focus has been away from Everton. Champions League action has dominated this week and let's hope that in the future this WILL include the Blues.

I have to admit that it's looking a little beyond us now for next season (although not impossible by any means). Arsenal seem to have hit form again at just the right time, although they still have tricky games to negotiate against the top three.

This weekend could be the pivotal one for us. If we win at Villa on Sunday it'll set us up superbly, not just for next week's FA Cup semi-final, but it'll put us in pole position for that fifth-place finish and allow us to launch our final assault on Arsenal for fourth.

I have to say I'm fairly confident heading to Villa Park. We played well last weekend. Wigan were not what I expected and we were professional enough to dismiss them with some ease really.

Being able to withdraw Tim Cahill with still half an hour to play was a bonus and will certainly help our cause over the next two Sundays. Aston Villa may have played reasonably well by all accounts at Old Trafford but they still lost... and that won't have done their confidence any good again.

They've now gone nine games without a win and their season has taken a noticeable turn for the worse since we knocked them out of the FA Cup. They've lost five of their last Premier League games and you have to go back to February 7 at Blackburn for their last victory.

We need to approach the game with the belief we can win there for only the second time since the inception of the Premier League. We can do so. We're a better side than Villa, as we've proved twice at Goodison this season (despite that late, late league loss we were much the better side on the day).

So there you have it, as always, much to debate in terms of football. And it'll never change in this City. I'm already looking forward to Friday and Monday's programme now on City Sport.

They're the best days - the previews on Friday's, the reviews on Monday's. Let's hope I'm reviewing another excellent Everton victory and then it'll be all about us next week. Forget that Champions League...... we're going to Wembley!!!!