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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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The game against Wigan on Sunday probably revives memories of one of Everton’s poorest displays of the season back at the JJB in November - we were simply not at the races. Let’s hope our lads haven’t been over indulging at our local race track this week ahead of the return fixture!
 
Given the fact that most of our fit players have been away on international duty to various corners of the globe, I’m sure it’ll have been an impossible task to have taken in the delights of Aintree.
 
On a serious note, our focus is very much on Sunday’s game against Wigan and maybe given those internationals during the week the boys will be grateful for

the extra day’s rest. I know many aren't fans of Sunday afternoon football (including me), but this is one occasion where it should benefit us in terms of

any fitness issues. For some reason the atmosphere just isn't the same on a Sunday (although Wembley will obviously be different!).
 
David Moyes will have spent most of the week worrying over those players that were away and keeping his fingers crossed that they returned unscathed. The

fact a fair number of them didn’t actually play but simply picked up a bit of jet lag is a bonus to us I suppose!
 
I can’t avoid referring to our last outing in this blog...primarily because this was, again, one of those insipid displays that seems to creep into our season around about this time. I’m hoping that we’ve got it out of our system ahead of a crucial period. Many seemed to take the view down at Pompey that is was a performance that was half expected and it had been coming to us after such sterling efforts over the previous weeks (one defeat in 18 prior to Fratton Park). Maybe a bit of lethargy, a little fatigue, previous efforts catching up with us etc. Well as far as I’m concerned, I’m desperately hoping it’s out of our system - in that respect maybe that poor performance came at the right time! Please!
 
It’s an awfully long time since we lost back to back Premier League games (October 2007 to be precise), and I can’t see it happening again just yet. Wigan are a much improved side but we possess more than enough quality to put them away and consolidate our sixth place. I’ll be very disappointed should we fail to take all three points. I know we’ve got bigger games to come this month...or have we? Priority remains our Premier League placing, the cup is an added bonus, one I’d love us to win, but Europe next season is also the number one goal for me!
 
You all know why!