 HURTLING towards oblivion almost as rapidly as they scaled the heights, Everton today face up to three very different challenges after one of the worst nights in this proud club's history. Given a hiding by a slick, quick Dinamo Bucharest side that seems to effectively end all hope of progress in Europe, David Moyes' men must first dig deep to find a performance against Arsenal next Monday night that can stop this worrying rot from spreading further. Secondly, the ambitions and objectives that everyone spoke so enthusiastically about at the start of campaign that promised so much must be quickly redefined. Stability needs to become the new buzz word at Goodison Park in the coming weeks. The third and final task, however, is arguably the one that will be most difficult to achieve. While relations between the players and supporters is not beyond repair, the former group has to act quickly to mend thousands of broken hearts. As they trudged over to the small section of visiting fans who had made the long journey to Romania, heads bowed in shame, Everton's squad were left in no doubt about what the general consensus of opinion was on their efforts. "You're not fit to wear the shirt" was one of the few printable chants. How the 200 supporters who failed to leave John Lennon Airport because of the financial troubles of one airline must have breathed a belated sigh of relief.
 They will get a refund. After witnessing a display that can at best be described as woeful, so should the ones who were subjected to the misery. Coming on the back of last Saturday's home defeat against Portsmouth, this simply was not good enough. As he suggested in his post-match press briefing, an ashen- faced Moyes stressed that crisis is the wrong word to describe Everton's current plight. Quite right. Calamity is much more suitable. Six defeats from their first seven competitive matches of the season is a damning statistic, as is the fact that the Blues have only managed to score four times in that period, two of which came from set plays. Draw your own conclusions. From now on, there can be no more talk about last season's fourth placed finish. As magnificent as that achievement was, today it counts for nothing. In the space of 45 kamikaze minutes, Everton managed to undo all their efforts of the past 12 months. | 
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