Fireside Chats: FA Cup dropouts edition

Although his immediate reaction was centered around the game, of course. In his post match interview, Dougie Freedman said,

First and foremost I'd like to thank the groundstaff, volunteers and fans for their huge efforts in getting the game on. It would have been easy to have called it off, but the work they put in was beyond the call of duty.

Looking at the game, I thought we performed very well but we're obviously disappointed with the end result. We were maybe a little bit nervous in the opening ten or so minutes, but once we settled I thought we were fantastic.

Everton went a goal up and that didn't set us back. We settled and started to show what we're all about. We then got a deserved equaliser and pushed on from there. From a coach's point of view it was very pleasing to see the work we're putting in on the training ground pay off for our goal. We knew that we could capitalise on that near post area and Marvin took his goal well.

On the contrary, if anything the goal seemed to galvanise the Wanderers, and they showed a spirit which has been lacking of late. He's spoken more on the controversial subject of Sordell today,

When I turned up Marvin was down on his luck a little bit. He needed some help and has got a lot fitter and looks hungry - and I thought his all-round game was great.

He tired towards the end, which was unfortunate, but that was because of his lack of game time. It was a big plus for us, which I thought the whole game was. I'm sitting here in a position where it was just the small detail that let us down.

Freedman has spoken about Sordell's lack of fitness before, and it is possibly a big reason why the striker wasn't getting the playing time that many people (me) thought he deserved. If that is the case, it's good to see it being remedied now.

Dougie continued,

Everton are a top side pushing for a place in the Champions League and they showed that. The end result is difficult to take and I feel for our fans, whose backing was magnificent today. We're showing signs that we're moving in the right direction. We've shown that we're able to match some of the top teams, the key for us is to now do that on a consistent basis.

There are plenty of positives for us to take away from the game. I thought Chung-Yong Lee played very well and it was good to see the reception Stuart Holden received. We also created a lot of opportunities and defended very well. It was a good all-round performance.

Freedman ended his press conference with,

We're back to work on Monday. I'm still looking to add a couple of fresh faces to the squad before the window closes.