Everton go back to move forward

Everton 2 Hull 1

Goodison Park time travelled to a bygone era as fans donned old school scarves, the club wheeled out someone dressed up as Dixie Dean while Geoff Hurst, Ray Wilson and the original ball from the 1966 World Cup final were also in attendance.

The performance that subsequently transpired on the pitch was a reminder of a more recent vintage, though, carrying some of the hallmarks of Martinez’s managerial predecessor David Moyes.

Everton lacked some of the fluency, sharp passing and creative verve that Martinez has attempted to instil into his charges as part of his attacking blueprint.

The Toffees were more cautious, pragmatic and predictable as they hit long balls in the direction of Romelu Lukaku, who was generally well shackled by the Hull defence. But the Moysiean qualities of resilience and determination remain fixed in the consciousness of those in royal blue and it helped them grind out the points against Hull.

Martinez’s footballing philosophy has certainly been embraced, if not entirely adopted at Everton, and the Spaniard admits making it the team’s default setting still remains his future goal.

“If you win without style and not knowing what you are doing it is not going to last,” Martinez said.

“It is going to be short term victories. We are here to win football games and do it in a controlled, pleasing manner with a clear pattern of play.”

That is not to say Martinez was unhappy with the manner of the victory. Indeed, he accepts the need for Everton to adopt myriad approaches, a particularly while they are work in progress.

“What’s important is that when you are trying to master a way of playing you have other options within that,” Martinez added. “I think in the modern game you need to be flexible and adaptable and we want to be able to beat teams with bigger budgets because we were flexible.”

A bizarre goalkeeping mistake from Hull’s Allan McGregor allowed Everton to take an early lead. Kevin Mirallas drilled a low shot from just outside the penalty area which McGregor, rooted to his line thinking the ball was going wide, watched sneak in off the post.

Everton midfielder Gareth Barry appeared to get the slightest of flicks on the way through, from an offside position, but Mirallas claimed it.

“I shot and for me it’s my goal!” Mirallas said, who may yet get a call from the dubious goals panel. “Gareth maybe touched it a little bit but it’s my name next to it on the result.”

Hull levelled on the half-hour mark when the lively Sone Aluko outpaced a fatigued Leighton Baines and crossed for Yannick Sagbo, who gave Tim Howard no chance from close range.

Martinez replaced Leon Osman with Steven Pienaar shortly after half-time and the South African restored the home side’s lead 27 seconds after coming on. Ross Barkley fed the ball out wide to Mirallas and the Belgian winger’s low cross was swept home by Pienaar from near the penalty spot with his first touch of the game.

Hull manager Steve Bruce could rightly take some plaudits for the manner of his side’s application and survival is a realistic target based on this showing.

“We can take a lot of heart from the performance. It took a great cross from Mirallas and top-class finish from Steven Pienaar to beat us,” Bruce said.

“I think we competed and shown a few people we are a decent team. The positives for me have been there all season. I’m very fortunate to have a group like them and if they keep working and playing like they are we will make a fist of it.”

EVERTON 4-2-3-1: Howard (7); Coleman (7), Jagielka (6), Distin (6), Baines (5); McCarthy (7), Barry (6); Mirallas (8), Barkley 7 (Naismith 6; 80), Osman 6 (Pienaar 7; 56); Lukaku 7 (Kone 5; 68).

HULL CITY 4-4-2: McGregor (5); Figueroa (5), Davies (7), Faye (6), Rosenior 6 (Boyd (7; 66); Brady (7), Huddlestone (6), Livermore (6), Elmohamady (5); Aluko 7 (Quinn 6; 74), Graham 6 (Sagbo 8; 16).

Subs: Sagbo (8; 16), Boyd (7; 66), Quinn (6; 74).