The Wembley Derby

 When I was offered my new job at Trafford Park there were a few things I thought I would come across and decided I could live with, there was the increased commute, the prospect of seeing Old Trafford in the distance every morning as I crossed Barton Bridge, and of course, multiple glory hunters. What I hadn't bargained for was an office full of Evertonians, but that seems to be what I got. Due to continental shift patterns and other work requirements it is likely that as I step into my workplace on Monday morning there will already be four bluenoses waiting, and not a single red (of the good kind) in sight. For me the games against Man Utd have always been the biggest but in recent times it has become equally important to make sure we keep our nearest and dearest in check, the consequences of not doing so are unpleasant.

 It's hard to choose a favourite between the two teams at the moment, Evertonians are delighting in pointing out that they're above us in the league and that we're in relegation form and have the worst manager in history, but as soon as you suggest we're the underdogs for Saturday it's met with disagreement. The blues relish their poor relation tag whether they admit it or not, it's so much easier when your club or team fails to find some way of it being Liverpool's fault than it is to address the problems constructively. David Moyes gave a recent interview around the time of his tenth anniversary in charge and brought up their defeat to Villareal in a Champions League qualifier in 2005. Everton were knocked out after a questionable refereeing call from Pierluigi Collina and being totally outplayed at home against a superior side that went on to reach the semi final  while Everton suffered a humiliating hammering at the hands of one of the Bucharest clubs. Was it the referee's fault? Did Duncan Ferguson get penalised for leading with his elbow in the manner he had done for years? Did the Everton manager get his tactics wrong? Were Villareal simply better? No, it was because Liverpool were allowed into the competition and UEFA (more on them at the end of the post) didn't want five English sides in the tournament so rigged the draw and instructed Collina not to let Everton through. Basically, it was because of Liverpool. Whatever goes on at Goodison, it always seems to be in some way because of us.

 Anyway, went slightly off on a tangent there, back to Saturday. Everton are in good form and have a striker scoring regularly, we've had a run of bad results but are beginning to see the shoots of a revival and a possible upturn in results. But we're missing a couple of goalkeepers and that's quite an important part of the team. No complaints really about either suspension but the timing isn't good, Liverpool appealed Doni's red card today but were never realistically going to get anywhere, though trying was definitely the right thing to do. Brad Jones had a mixed night on Tuesday at Blackburn but thankfully the media seem to have focused on the positives (for once) and he will go into the semi final with alot of people interested in seeing him do well. Glen Johnson and Daniel Agger have also returned to the first team at a good time, our league results have been awful while these two have been missing, Agger has even contributed two assists in his two sub appearances this week so has contributed greatly at both ends of the field. Whether or not either of the pair is ready to start  against Everton we'll find out on Saturday. We won the game against Blackburn with Gerrad, Downing, Kuyt, Carragher and Suarez all not being used so I wouldn't be surprised if all five of them start at Wembley. Who partners Gerrard in midfield could be interesting, I have a feeling Kenny will go for Kuyt and Downing wide with Spearing and Henderson central and Gerrard behind Suarez but I'm often wrong.

 Coming as it does a day before the anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy the game will take on a new edge. While it shouldn't affect what goes on on the pitch it could possibly have an impact on how the supporters behave. The bitterness between the two sets of fans has grown over recent years but I have to say by and large the majority of Evertonians have always been respectful of what happened that day in 1989, unlike some of our other main rivals. The tributes before kick off will be moving and fan behaviour will be under scrutiny, neither side will want to be portrayed as being out of order on such an emotional day and I would hope for fierce backing of your own side without anything crossing the line being aimed at your opposition, it's time for Merseyside to stand up together. Let's face it, how many neutrals will be tuning in to see some fantastic football and how many will be watching hoping for some kind of incident? Let's all do our city proud.

 It's a huge day for the city and almost everybody will be looking forward to it, with the exception of the organisers of the Grand National, who will be without 65,000 of their punters on their big day. The roads to London will be packed, traffic will be chaos, songs will be sung, rivalries will be played out and at the end of it all one team will have the honour of making the journey back down south in May to fight it out in the final of the oldest cup competition in the world. The other team will have nothing left to play for but the chance to finish above their neighbours in the league. Bring it on.

 A few more points from the last 24 hours or so. Well done to the FA for banning Branislav Ivanovic for his assault on Shaun Maloney, and well done to QPR for winning convincingly despite missing an experienced player through an appalling suspension, bet Mark Hughes team talk for that one was easy enough... Well done to Mohammed Al Fayed for asking the FA to look into refereeing standards, the game at Wigan last night was shocking. There was nothing wrong whatsoever with Wigan's disallowed goal, and the linesman failed to give Man Utd a blatant penalty for handball. Alex Ferguson recently said these decisions even themselves out over the course of a season so Utd now only need to expect six or seven more against them in the last five games and the balance will be restored....  And let me just make mention of UEFA, they have fined Man City £25,000 for returning to the pitch one minute late for the second half of their tie in Lisbon. Sporting were found guilty of racial abuse from their fans during the same game, their fine? £20,000. No wonder the FA get things so wrong so often when they have role models like these to learn from.