Finaaaallllyyyyy. After a fantastically difficult run of fixtures since the middle of September during which we had lost all but one game, we welcomed an out-of-sorts Wolves team to Goodison Park and finally picked up three points.

This being Everton, it couldn’t have been a straightforward, relaxing win. Indeed, despite dominating possession in the first period of the game Wolves were defending well and it was they who took the lead after 37 minutes.

Fellaini has just signed a new whopping contract worth a recession-busting £70k a week and he repaid the fans by clattering into a Wolves player on the edge of the box as he was going away from the goal. Although Barry ‘not biased at all’ Horne claimed it was not a penalty, I have to be honest and say Fellaini did clip him and the referee was always going to award a penalty. And despite Howard not having had a save to make in the first half his first task was to pick the ball out of his net after Stephen Hunt lashed the ball down the middle of his goal.

For fucks sake.

Up until that point we had controlled possession but apart from a couple of half chances for Louis ‘always scores on Twitter’ Saha we hadn’t really tested their keeper enough. And as is usually the way Wolves started coming out of their defensive shell after their goal and started to look more confident. Perhaps a bit too confident. A foul on Tim Cahill led to a free-kick just outside the box which Baines delivered and Phil Jagielka headed home to drag us back into the game a couple of minutes before half-time. It should also be noted that Jagielka is also playing with a hairline fracture in his toe at the moment and is only on the field thanks to pain-killing injections. You can question his distribution but not his commitment to lifting Everton away from the bottom end of the table.

The second half started in much the same vein as the first with Everton controlling possession and getting plenty of crosses into the box but every cross was either over-hit (Hibbert, Tony not the doctor from the Simpsons [although he would probably be more accurate]), under-hit (Royston ‘fuck defending’ Drenthe) or the cross would be good but Saha would be off the pitch updating Twitter. There was one cracking chance for Cahill on the 70 minute mark from about four yards out but he managed to hit the ball at a Wolves defender making a desperate last-ditch tackle and Hennessey managed to jump on the ball.

The game seemed to be heading to an unsatisfying conclusion when a Drenthe corner was floated into the box and Stephen Ward wrestled Saha to the ground. The referee pointed to the spot. In all honesty it was a soft penalty for Wolves to concede. Ward definitely took Saha down but it seems to happen at every corner. If referees are trying to make a stand against all the pushing and grappling that happens on set-pieces, I’m all for it but there has to be consistency.

While I was debating the morality of the awarded penalty, Leighton Baines ignored me and slotted the penalty home.

The last few minutes were naturally nail-biting with Wolves introducing the dangerous-looking Stephen Fletcher (I don’t mean criminal looking, I mean he looked like he might score against us). But thankfully we saw the game out and, crucially, got some much-needed points.

It was interesting to note that both of our goals came from set-pieces today. As boring and as repetitive as it sounds we really do look blunt going forward in open play. I know Moyes prefers to play one striker up front and have Cahill supporting but he hasn’t scored for nearly a year now (acknowledging the fact he has had some injuries). It wont change but I wouldn’t mind seeing Saha maybe brought back a little to play where Cahill is and start Velios for a few games. We cant penalty and corner kick our way through the whole season.