A corner turned?

It's been a strange week for Evertonians. After umpteen transfer windows spent praying not to lose players rather than looking to sign them and a lacklustre season on the pitch this week came out of nowhere. And it was good. No scrub that, it felt BLOODY BRILLIANT. For the first time in ages it feels to me like we might be at the start of a road back to the good old days.

Darron Gibson celebrates his first goal at the old lady

It's a long road of course and if I know Everton we'll get beat by Wigan tomorrow, but let's live for a second in the moment of Tuesday night and savour it. It's been a long long time and us blues deserve it.

The day started well with the signing of Nikica Jelavic looking a formality and rumours abound of several other deals in the offing. It took a slightly unexpected turn when the news of Louis Saha's departure to Spurs became known but despite coming out of left field for most it seemed to feel like the right move. As talented and lethal as he is on his day, this season Louis's days have become less and less frequent, in fact he probably hasn't really shown what he's capable of once. In any case, if there was a sense of loss for Saha it quickly dried up when rumours surfaced that we might see Steven Pienaar coming back as part of the deal.

So we came to 8 o'clock and attention turned from SSN to the match. What a cracking performance it was. The type of grafting, stoic performace that we had started to take for granted a couple of years back but which has been missing all season. Despite our lack of possession I thought we looked like a side with some self-belief again. We looked dangerous on the break and a lung-busting shift from the big Argentine Stracqualursi, full of confidence after his FA Cup goal last week, pressurised the City defence and allowed our attacking midfielders to get forward. Goodison was rocking, like only it can for a game under lights and with an hour gone it looked like City were starting to run out of ideas. I said to my mate on 60 mins that I fancied us to nick a goal now and within 2 minutes my premonition came true when a quick break from Drenthe, lead to a cross from Bainesey to Donovan who having miscontrolled had the presence of mind to lay the ball back to the onrushing Gibson who rifled a tradmark drive into the top corner of Gwladys Street goal. Pandemonium.

At the final whistle David Moyes was punching the air and smiling like a kid at Christmas. It was a fantastic sight! It brought home to me how long it is since we've seen that from him and boy have I missed it. For all his faults I've got love for that guy.

So to the cherry on top. The return of Steven Pienaar on a six-month loan which might turn into something more permanent further down the line. The finishing touch to my most satisfying day as an Evertonian in a long while. We have never replaced the movement that Pienaar gave us in his first spell and to my mind, movement is the absolute key to scoring goals in the premier league. I see no reason why Pienaar wouldn't be able to slot straight back in. He's hungry after barely getting a kick in the past year and we all now how well he worked with Baines and Cahill last time. We could have some delicious attacking midfield options choosing three from Pienaar, Cahill, Osman, Drenthe and Donovan in a 4-2-3-1.

Oh I can feel it. Optimism and excitement. And i don't think i'm the only one. I saw it in David Moyes' eyes during his post-match interview. As a team i've always felt we mirrored our manager. I think Moyes is a character who can get depressed and negative, he can be aprehensive and when that happens it comes through in his team. At times this season we have looked straight out terrified - to attack, of making mistakes, of daring to try something and it not coming off. But when Moyesey is buzzing I see a different team, one full of effort, verve and self-belief. That Everton dicked on Newcastle to qualify for the Champions League. It dominated the shite over two legs when they were actually a good side. And it took United and Chelsea to pieces within a matter of weeks in 2010.

I know this is all a bit much off of one performance, but what I also know is that we can beat anyone when we're on our bipolar highs. I feel now that we might finally be starting out on the road back to those days. We're a long way off of cup finals and Europa league nights but we had to start somewhere and if this is that first step, then I want to get the fuck on board.

Come on you blue boys!!!!