Ciaran McKenna says…
I think Monday’s game will be a slightly different test to what we’ve faced so far this season.
Everton will be very physical and strong, and they’d be very happy to leave Wearside with a point. However,
they aren’t just a bunch of lumping attackers — they have talent and skill as well.
Iliman Ndiaye and Jack Grealish are great footballers who provide a genuine threat, and Jordan Pickford is a terrific goalkeeper who’ll be hard to beat.
Despite that, I think the Lads are playing brilliantly and that they’re high on confidence. Also, Everton have just been thumped by Tottenham in their own back yard.
The Stadium of Light will be full and rocking, and hopefully we’ll have enough to get a result on Monday.
Ewan Bowman says…
I’m feeling very relaxed and confident.
The players are playing very well, are well organised defensively and carry a huge threat going forward. We have the quality to go on and get another three points.
Our home form has been brilliant and with the backing of the crowd, any opponent will be fearing a trip to the Stadium of Light these days.
As for David Moyes returning, I hope the crowd gives him the welcome he deserves when he walks out of the tunnel — which is booing him as loudly as possible. I have no respect for him as a manager and after the way he basically gave up after two games as Sunderland manager, I’ll never forgive him.
As for Jordan Pickford, a brilliant player who’s had a great career both at club and international level. He’ll get a good reception but once the game kicks off 45,000 Mackems will be hoping we score a few goals past him.
Got to be confident. It wont be easy but the head coach will be looking at this game as one we should be looking to get three points from — and let’s hope we do.
John Wilson says…
It seems to me that we’re still approaching every game as a new experience and wondering what’ll happen.
We’ve all still got a lot of scars and stresses from the past to think about what things might go wrong, but by placing trust and faith in this new squad of players and accepting the brilliant start we’ve had, I can’t see any reason why our first evening game under the lights can’t see us bag another three points.
Of course, we’ve all got our hang ups from the past but so far this season, all pointers suggest another home win. Famous last words of course, but I’m trying to retrain my brain into not always having negative thoughts about our club.
It’ll be interesting on various fronts — the chance to welcome home Jordan Pickford (I’m sure he’ll get a great reception) and our first chance to let David Moyes know exactly what we think of him — even though I’m sure he already knows. I don’t want that to linger through the match as supporting the Lads during the game is what it’s all about, but I’m sure before kick off it might be a bit fruity!
I’m very much looking forward to the evening: the bridge lit up, the Sky Sports cameras, and another chance to show everyone that we aren’t a flash in the pan but a strong, serious and hardworking Premier League team with the loudest and most passionate fans.
Mark Wood says…
In terms of the game itself, I think this will be a different challenge based on our encounters with David Moyes’ Everton in his first spell with them.
Back then, he and his teams figured pretty early on that they could and did kick us, bullying our teams and it has to be said they usually had the upper hand when they played Sunderland. However, this team is a different beast with the likes of Granit Xhaka, Noah Sadiki, Omar Alderete and Nordi Mukiele in our ranks — and come to think of it, I don’t see Trai Hume being bullied out of a game by anyone.
I’m not taking anything for granted as Everton haven’t had the luck going their way in the last couple of games despite playing pretty well.
I’m sure Jordan Pickford will absolutely love this game, returning to the club he still supports, and you can bet he’s been looking forward to it all week.
Since he left, he’s established himself as the best English goalkeeper out there by a mile, He’s played in European Championship finals and World Cup semi-finals and I hope our fans give him a rousing return as a fully deserved acknowledgment of respect. I hope he has a blinder but that he doesn’t manage to shut us out completely so that we do take the points.
As for David Moyes? Oh, boy. There’s so much you can say about his year as our manager.
I lived on Merseyside back in the early 2000s and saw first hand what he did with Everton when he joined them in 2002, taking them from relegation strugglers to Champions League qualifiers. He had the Midas touch in the transfer market, bringing in unknown players from lower leagues and overseas, such as Joseph Yobo, Tim Cahill, Mikel Arteta, Joleon Lescott and Tim Howard. The scouting network he had there was as good as any in the business and I thought we would see similar savvy activity when he became our manager.
However, when he came to Sunderland, it was as if he’d never scouted beyond Goodison Park.
I’ve heard pundits make excuses for him in the years since he left Sunderland, saying he never had any money to spend.
Wrong! He spent £35 million in his year at the Stadium of Light — not not a king’s ransom but enough to do something with at the time, and an amount where you should’ve expected to see some kind of improvement. I just don’t think his heart was in it and he certainly couldn’t take to some of the players he inherited.
He should’ve been able to keep us up after Big Sam rescued us, and the fact that he didn’t was his own responsibility.
Nic Wiseman says…
I love the connection we have with Everton. I went to college in Liverpool in 1984 and watched Everton from the Gwladys Street end when I couldn’t get home for the match.
That was the season Everton won the championship for the first time under Howard Kendall. I went there because they’d signed Paul Bracewell from Sunderland, and he was my favourite player in a midfield which also included Mark Proctor, Nick Pickering and Leighton James — and they also pinched Ian Atkins from us.
I watched Everton win the championship and was inside the stadium for their epic encounter with Bayern Munich in the semi-final of the European Cup Winners’ Cup. We were in town just after our Milk Cup final appearance and Ian Wallace opened the scoring but we eventually relented 4-1 in a season which saw us relegated. I even had a half-and-half bobble hat made up of Sunderland and Everton — Reidy and Brace were an amazing midfield partnership that season.
The connections continued, and I was at the 7-1 reverse under Roy Keane.
I wanted to leave early but my ex-father-in-law insisted I stay until the end — not the only torture he inflicted on me. We eventually beat the Toffees at Goodison with a penalty scored by Ki-Sung yueng, and he last scored against Manchester City on New Year’s Day.
Under David Moyes, Everton were a bogey club for us but that game was one to claw something back from.
The game sees Jordan Pickford return for his first game on Wearside since he left, and apparently Moyes tipped Bill Kenwright the nod about England’s current number one.
I’m confident that we can see off Everton on Monday night, as this team isn’t scared of anyone. Pickers will be giving a rousing reception — something that can’t be said of the manager who did the dirty on us.
