Squad sheets: Everton v Hull City

Everton instantly lost the momentum of their previous home victory, a resounding thumping of Manchester United, with successive defeats at Sporting in the Europa League and Tottenham last Sunday, a result that made their outside hopes of a return to European football next season appear even more remote. Their undoubted low point of the season, however, came at Hull in November, when Phil Brown’s relegation-threatened team coasted to a three-goal lead inside 28 minutes. The possible return of Jimmy Bullard from a three-month injury lay-off offers Hull much-needed hope in their bid for survival. Andy Hunter

Venue Goodison Park, Sunday 4pm

Tickets £29-35 (0871 663 1878)

Last season Everton 2 Hull 0

Referee L Mason

This season’s matches 16 Y45, R4, 3.06 cards per game

Odds Everton 2-5 Hull 10-1 Draw 15-4

Everton

Subs from Nash, Yobo, Jagielka, Senderos, Bilyaletdinov, Vaughan, Anichebe, Duffy, Cahill, Gosling, Coleman, Agard, Baxter, Wallace

Doubtful Cahill (calf), Jagielka (thigh), Osman (foot), Senderos (hip), Vaughan (thigh)

Injured Hibbert, hernia, 20 Mar), Saha (hamstring, 20 Mar), Fellaini (ankle, Aug)

Suspended None

Form guide LWWLWW

Disciplinary record Y47 R2

Leading scorer Saha 13

Hull

Subs from Duke, Kilbane, Mendy, Olofinjana, Marney, Garcia, Altidore, Ghilas, Boateng, Folan, Zaki, Sonko

Doubtful Bullard (knee), Geovanni (knee), Marney (calf), Olofinjana (ankle)

Injured Ashbee (knee, Aug), Gardner (ankle, unknown)

Suspended Fagan (one match)

Form guide LLWDDL

Disciplinary record Y50 R4

Leading scorer Hunt 6

Match pointers

• Hull have failed to score in eight of their last 10 away league games

• Steven Pienaar has picked up five yellow cards in his last four Premier League games

• James Vaughan scored the fastest Premier League goal by a substitute this season, 1min and 42sec after coming off the bench

•Hull have allowed their opponents 382 shots – more than any other side in the top flight this season

• Everton have scored at least twice in seven of their last eight meetings with Hull in all competitions

Premier LeagueEvertonHull Cityguardian.co.uk

Thursday’s football transfer rumours: Neil Warnock to QPR?

Today’s piffle loves the smell of Dulux in the morning

Woo-woo. Dum-chum de-de de-de de. Woo-woo. Please allow The Mill to, er… Dum-chum de-de de-de de. Woo-woo. Something about driving a tank when the bodies stank. Dum-chum de-de de. Woo-woo.

For reasons that aren’t immediately clear, this morning the Mill feels a little different about the biggest story in the history of not-that-big stories painfully overinflated by righteous and self-serving gusts of hot air heated solely by the heart from hot air generated by pure hot air.

Whereas yesterday The Mill felt itself ranged squarely shoulder-to-shoulder, cheek-to-cheek alongside Cheryl, handsome dancer Derek, the dirty-looking blonde one from Girls Aloud and the perfumed-handkerchief-dabbing moral arbiters of the filthy red-tops. Today it has started to feel a slight dilution of its frothing indignation towards the world’s most evil left-back.

The Mill suspects it has something to do with this morning’s Sun. One of these people going about their business in a French medical clinic is behaving really quite strangely. But which one?

“ASHLEY Cole refused to say sorry for betraying Cheryl yesterday after The Sun tracked him down to a swish sports clinic in south west France. We asked him the question the whole nation wants to ask: “How could you?” But the shaken Chelsea star could only reply: “I just can’t talk about that.”

“Cole, having treatment on his broken ankle at the clinic in Capbreton, a seaside town near Biarritz, tried to hide behind an exercise machine when challenged by our reporter. And wearing a supportive sandal on his injured foot, he hobbled away on crutches after refusing to comment further.”

The Mill asks you. You get the bleeding Eurostar. You blag your way in through the gates. You then accost a weeping man on crutches and distract him from flexing his toes repeatedly while listening to sad power ballads on his chrome-plated iPod. And all you get in return is a polite refusal to discuss the most traumatic few days of his life.

Also, there’s this:

“LOVE rat Ashley Cole has blamed his mother-in-law over his marriage break-up. He told pals that life with Cheryl went downhill when her mum Joan, 50, moved in to keep an eye on her.

“A source close to Ashley was last night reported to have said their sex life dwindled to virtually nothing.
They added: “It’s a bit of a passion killer to have your mum in the house.”"

The Mill was rather surprised to read these words and would like to extend a personal invitation to Joan Tweedy to infiltrate The Mill’s own dank and cobwebbed crawl space in the eaves of fashionable .Co.Uk Integrated Towers in London’s horrible Kings Cross any time she fancies it. Blurry mobile phone photographs of The Mill’s ancient, sodden, mildewed sewn-in smalls are available on request.

Meanwhile in the world of almost non-existent actual concrete flimsy football tittle-tattle The Mirror says Arsène Wenger is “keeping tabs on” the 18 year-old Ajax starlet Christian Eriksen, who has been recommended by Dennis Bergkamp.

Arsenal have also given a trial to the 17 year-old Icelandic Whizzkid Ingolfur Sigurdsson, who plays, sadly, not in goal for, but inmidfieldfor Knattspyrnufelag Reykjavikur. Robin Van Persie is going to be fit for the last six games of Arsenal’s “title push” according to Bert Van Marwijk, who says: “I spoke to Robin on the phone last week and he is improving all the time and feeling better. You can hear it in his voice that he feels he is improving.” Hopefully this involved him saying at some point “I feel I am improving”.

Wayne Bridge is “in turmoil” over his expected England call up this weekend. He’s still too cross to kick a ball around next to John Terry, because Terry had sex with his ex-girlfriend, who had previously split up with Wayne Bridge, reportedly in part because of his own “philandering ways”.

Next week: fur singlet-clad Wayne Bridge drags woman through village by her hair because that shirt’s not going to iron itself. Roberto Mancini says his job is completely safe. “I don’t feel under pressure at all,” he said, speaking from beneath a small nest of antique stain occasional tables.

Neil Warnock is being “coy” over whether he’s about to leave Crystal Palace. “Can I deny speculation about going to QPR? No,” he said, before taking to the stage to sing “Happy Birthday Mr President” in a strapless ball gown while making a range of creepily child-like cooing kissy kissy noises.

In the Daily Mail Hull’s Kamil Zayatte says he’s going to leave in the summer. “I see myself at a bigger club than Hull. If I could land a move to Manchester United, Arsenal or Chelsea it would make all Guineans proud of me,” he said, making all Guineans feel at first amused and slightly protective and then perhaps even a little worried. In an EXCLUSIVE it turns out Bridge will refuse to shake hands with Terry when Man City play Chelsea this weekend.

The Mirror also reports that Rafael Benítez was asked why he’s so fat by Romanian journalists yesterday. One cheeky scamp asked: “Mr Benítez, the last time I saw you was at the 2005 Champions’ League final, and your, erm, silhouette seems to have changed since then. Why is that?”

Benitez replied: “It is the stress of having to answer so many questions from the press. Thank you and goodnight,” before clearing the soup bowls away, and going into the kitchen to flob in the beef Wellingtons. Jermaine Pennant has been sent home from training by Real Zaragoza after arriving late for the third time in two weeks. And the Portsmouth defender Dusko Tosic is going to leave on a free transfer having never played in a league game, which is probably all for the best.

In The Sun Ryan Babel has “vowed to knuckle down after a heart-to-heart with boss Rafael Benítez”. Babel said: “I have had a good talk with the manager and I know what I have to do.

“That is what I am going to concentrate on. I just have to try to be patient, keep working hard and doing my best.”

Landon Donovan has “hinted” he might like to make a permanent move to Everton. “I think it’s been an incredible experience and away from football, the people have been extremely nice,” he said, implying that English football might contain people who are something other than “incredibly nice”.

And according to Goal.com Kansas City Wizards wizard Luis Gil has been signed by Real Salt Lake.

“Real Salt Lake provides a prime environment for the development of young players,” says the excitable, blazered wise-cracking, golf-playing, sample-carrying, Cadillac-driving, wife-flirting, squirtie-water-flower-wearing overly friendly American man in a suit Garth Lagerwey.

“The dream of venturing onto the Rio Tinto Stadium turf will surely inspire Luis to work hard every day in training. We have a talented, veteran team and we have no expectation that any young player will easily crack our championship lineup, though our hope is that Luis is eventually able to earn minutes in the years ahead,” he added, sounding like a demented alien.

ArsenalChelseaAjaxHull CityLiverpoolCrystal PalaceQPRBarney Ronayguardian.co.uk

West Ham United 3-0 Hull City | Premier League match report

For West Ham the ghost of relegation may finally be starting to fade after a fourth successive clean sheet at home, and a second successive win. That it came against another of the sides battling at the bottom of the Premier League will only make the victory taste sweeter, but the reality is that despite being a goal up for almost the entire game, a man up for nearly half of it and two men to the good by the end, the home side were still far from convincing.

Carlton Cole’s goal, the second of the game, came from what was by some distance the best move of the match, even if it consisted of just a single pass – Julien Faubert’s superbly weighted through-ball – and a smart, calm clipped finish. People will also talk of a 70th-minute shot from inside his own half by the frequently frustrating Alessandro Diamanti which drew a save from Boaz Myhill, though it would almost certainly have missed the target had he left it. The performance from the home side was adequate, and no more.

Hull’s was considerably less. Thirteen league games now without a win and soon to celebrate, if that’s the right word, the first anniversary of their last success away from home, the visitors played pretty much to form throughout and a series of miserable gaffes started in just the third minute. Tom Cairney surrendered possession to Valon Behrami, who passed to Guillermo Franco. The Mexican, making his first appearance of 2010, miscontrolled so badly that the ball bobbled perfectly into the path of Behrami, who scored with ease from 15 yards.

Myhill made two decent saves in the first half, both also from Behrami and the second, after the midfielder headed Diamanti’s cross from close range, quite excellent. Then seven minutes into the second half Craig Fagan, already booked for fouling Scott Parker, gave the slightest tug to Diamanti’s shirt, the Italian tumbled theatrically and Hull were down to 10 men.

Shortly after the second goal they made a triple substitution, always something of a calculated risk. It didn’t work out well: although one of the new players, Jozy Altidore, missed a decent chance in the 74th minute it left them with no further options when their captain, Anthony Gardner, fell awkwardly in the 81st minute. He was carried off on a stretcher, left leg heavily strapped, and Hull ended the game with nine men.

Their numerical disadvantage might explain the third goal, when Faubert collected Radoslav Kovac’s pass, ran into the area without the merest hint of a challenge and thumped a shot into the top left corner. A miserable end to another miserable Hull performance

West Ham UnitedHull CityPremier LeagueSimon Burntonguardian.co.uk