Everton need to start ending seasons in style
HOWARD KENDALL knew how to finish a season well.
When he was still finding his feet as a top flight manager, still searching for the balance that would create the most successful football team in Everton's history, he was a master at buying himself a little extra time.
His debut season as Blues boss had been patchy. And that's being kind.
Then five wins and a draw from the last six matches ensured a respectable eighth place finish and a feel-good factor to take into the summer.
It was the same the following season. This was the campaign of the traumatic 5-0 derby defeat, but six wins in the last eight matches again generated optimism for the following campaign.
The close of 1984 will always be remembered for landing the first silver- ware in 14 years at Wembley, but in the league, too, a last lap flourish of four wins and two draws lifted the Blues from 14th place on April 21 to a healthy seventh.
Close season optimism is why it's so important for Everton to rid themselves of their current post-Easter exhaustion.
A solid finish to a season has been an Achilles heel of David Moyes.
Perhaps it's a product of constantly operating with a small squad . . . but only once in recent years have Everton enjoyed a respectable run-in to a season, when they finished fourth in 2005 with three wins and a draw post-Easter.
But even then any feel-good factor was dissipated by the embarrassing 7-0 scoreline at Arsenal.
Alarmingly, the Blues haven't won their last match of any campaign since 1996.
This has undoubtedly been a season of progress at Goodison. But the inventive and entertaining defeat of Larissa was in October, the expansive 7-1 slaying of Sunderland came in November and even the 8-1 aggregate against the Norwegian champions was back in February.
Everton need a big finish - badly.
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