GETTING OVER JAGS

This time it was Barca stopper Marquez writhing on the deck in very-real agony after a seemingly innocuous run with the ball at his feet.

Straight away I'm sure all Evertonians watching said the same thing: "That's him out for the season."

Sadly, we're becoming armchair experts at spotting torn cruciates, shredded Achilles and pinged ham-strings.

Aside from the obvious despair at our misfortune and huge sympathy for Phil Jagielka all these injuries have impressed on me how random football can be.

It gives pause for thought that, even at the measly level I play at, you can be right as rain one minute and on crutches for months the next.

There almost seems no point bemoaning Everton's bad luck with injuries now.
I'd thought it couldn't get worse after losing the Yak and Arteta but then to lose the player of the season like that on Saturday was so stomach-sickeningly deflating.

Thing is though, we've got to get over that feeling quickly. As players, and as fans, there is nothing to be achieved by wallowing in self pity.

Jags won't play in the final now or the business end of the Fight for Fifth but Joey Yobo can, and the Nigerian proved at Stamford Bridge that on his day he can be an excellent central defender.

He just needs to find the consistency which, largely, has made Jagielka and Lescott so impervious.

Speaking of Chelsea they looked good holding Barcelona to a scoreless draw at the Nou Camp and if you wanted to be negative you could fear a drubbing in the final.

But then you recall they had almost exactly the same team out against our second string at home and we ran them very close and came away with a deserved point.

Obviously we're all about the final at the moment. It was heartening to see Robert Elstone speaking up on our behalf by criticising the F.A. over their much-publicised woeful ticketing distribution.

At the same time, it still rankles a bit that of the 25,109 tickets Everton got, many of them will go straight away to the club itself (i.e. players, staff, shareholders).

I don't begrudge the ordinary workers at the club getting a ticket for their efforts, nor people who have coughed up their own money to invest in shares, but it rankles a bit that players; particularly the likes of Castillo and Fellaini - who must know about 10 people each in the UK let alone Liverpool - can grab handfuls.

Already the amount of genuine sob stories from devoted fans who are going to miss out is growing.

But I can't knock the club for the criteria they've chosen. There was nothing else they could do because of the F.A.

Unfortunately this cycle of redundant criticism from clubs will go on every May because the F.A. don't really care about ordinary fans, and ordinary fans would never boycott an occasion like the F.A. cup final.