Pre-match: Everton v Sunderland, 26 Dec

Going to this, going to be on the beer early for this one, coach leaves at half nine. I am going to the game with a positive state of mind but under O'Neill, Sunderland are looking like a team we could struggle against, especially away from home. I think we'll struggle to create chances but you only need one chance to score. Sunderland looked good against QPR and have shown they can score goals so this could either be a tight game with few chances or we could be on the end of a drubbing. I don't like predicting us to lose but I'm just being realistic.

Sunderland 2-1 Everton

If anyone wants as well I can post pictures from the match as I take my iPod Touch and can get some good pictures.

Also we have four away games in our next five league games which could be really costly for us.

That'd be great - I don't see it live on any of my TV channels, so I'll be hunting for a link tomorrow morning (8am, Mountain Time) in Denver....

You're right that Sunderland's been on a nice run lately, so the Blues will have to show up ready to play.

COYB!

Ouch - looked Tim was going down to cover that shot, but Distin slid in and deflected it.

We were lucky to take a point away - thanks Howard Webb.

I'm sure I will find out in about 25 minutes when the match is televised in the US, but will (or did) Donovan play today?

No, he won't be available to play until the match on January 4 vs Bolton

Drenthe was disappointing today. He gave the ball away too many times trying to go right at the defender. That's his game, but he had no success unlike last week. Horrible call by Howard Webb, but it's about time Everton got a break from the refs.

Accurate on both counts. Looked to me that Webb hesitated on the penalty, looked to his A/R who signaled it and Webb blew the whistle. Maybe from the A/R's perspective it looked like there had to be contact - but as the replay shows, there wasn't (isn't it nice having that advantage?).

Of course, I'm a ref and have indoor (full-field) games tonight in a men's league, so watch me blow some calls....

Poor performance today as we were too defensive against a awful Sunderland side, Heitinga and Neville simply cant play together in the middle of the park as got overrun.
They got a lucky deflected goal, we got a dubious pen. All in all a fair result but we should be beating the likes of these

@Gwladys Street - did you make it to the match? have a good time? how was the early beer?

Timing in the US for most UK matches is marvelous - matches in the mid-afternoon there are on early AM here, perfect time to head to (a Colorado version of) a pub, have some breakfast and a bloody mary, then on with the day.

Got too the match about two hours before kick off, had a hot dog and just mooched around until the turnstiles opened, went in, the beer wasn't too bad, bottled Fosters they were selling. I was still hungover from Christmas though so when the coaches left I opted against opening my beer and had a coffee instead (available on the coach). Coach journey there was actually quite good, I was looking forward to the game and visiting a new stadium and we watched The Inbetweeners Movie (not sure if you are familiar with it but a Google search should provide all information)

As for the match itself, not the prettiest and the wind in the second half ruined it really. I was certainly happy with a point and had a good day out overall. I think we missing Rodwell and Fellaini though because Heitinga and Neville in the middle certainly isn't the best combination, but it was good to see Distin back in the starting XI. I was disappointed that Barkley didn't get any game time, I know he is only 18 but sooner or later he is going to want to leave if he isn't playing. Bring on West Brom.

Here are the pictures I took:

http://imageshack.us/g/31/img0011vm.jpg/