Jekyll and Hyde Toffees continue to baffle

SO bad one day, so brilliant the next.

The only thing consistent about Everton’s season has been a quite staggering degree of inconsistency.

Four days after David Moyes’s side produced one of their worst displays of the campaign to crash out of the FA Cup at the hands of Championship Reading, they regrouped to fashion a performance that proved much too strong for a Newcastle United side who had not lost at home since St Stephen’s Day.

First-half goals from Leon Osman and Phil Jagielka lifted Everton into the top half of the table for the first time this year, and established a healthy six-point gap between them the relegation zone.

It ensured a positive end to a difficult week, but was insufficient to completely eradicate the anger that accompanied Tuesday’s timid surrender.

Welcome as it might have been, a victory in a mid-table battle is no replacement for a place in the quarter-finals of the cup.

“The main emotion is frustration,” admitted Jagielka. “It has been a long season for the manager and players, from the heights of winning derby games to the lows of FA Cup ties. It has been such an up and down season, not only for the players and fans, but also the manager.

“It is probably the most frustrating it has ever been. It doesn’t look like there is much to go for in the league, we will try and go as high as we can but the cup was our last hope of making the season special.

“In midweek, if we didn’t have badges on our shirts you wouldn’t have known it was an Everton team. That is not the way we usually do things. We have watched the videos and talked about it and it’s gone.”

At least Everton’s spirit remains intact. Trailing to Leon Best’s headed opener, and shorn of Tim Cahill and Marouane Fellaini, arguably their two most influential players, it would have been easy for visiting heads to have dropped at St James’.

Instead, inspired by the mercurial Mikel Arteta, Everton fashioned a remarkable turnaround that saw them claim the lead before the interval.

First, Arteta took advantage of some woeful marking from the recalled Steven Taylor to roll a square ball into the path of Osman, who calmly side-footed into the corner of the net.

Then, five minutes later, with the Newcastle defence failing to clear a whipped Leighton Baines free-kick, Jagielka converted at the back post via the underside of the crossbar.

The win should have been even more emphatic, but Louis Saha, Victor Anichebe and Seamus Coleman all wasted decent late opportunities to extend Everton’s lead as their opponents vainly pressed for an equaliser.

“We have that resilience and I think the gaffer is going to go for a squad of 12 next year, back to the old days,” said Jagielka. “We had no strikers a couple of years ago, and Fellaini and Cahill playing up there, so you can’t put your finger on it.

“You would have to ask the gaffer why that seems to work for us, but he puts the trust in the players he puts on the pitch and we came out on top.”

Newcastle, missing influential players of their own in the shape of Joey Barton, Stephen Ireland and Jose Enrique, who was injured midway through the first half, deservedly left empty-handed.

Their season remains a success to this stage given their return from the Championship last May, but while they remain in ninth position, they too are just six points off the relegation zone.

They failed to capitalise on Ireland striker Best’s sixth goal in 10 matches, a close-range header after Tim Howard had parried Kevin Nolan’s shot, and forthcoming home games against Wolves, Birmingham and West Brom are clearly going to be crucial. “It is only people outside the club who have ever assumed we would be okay from relegation,” said Steve Harper. “We as players take nothing for granted and we’ve got nine games left to get as many points as possible. At the start of the year our aim was to stay up and that is still the case. The sooner we can do that, the better.”