Everton	1 - 0	Blackburn
Scorers Johnson 10  Booked Cahill 74 Fernandes 77	Half Time ( 1 - 0 )	Booked Todd 83

Everton got their own back on Blackburn after their 4-1 defeat in the FA Cup, as they overcame their north-west rivals with a determined victory at Goodison Park.

They welcomed Andrew Johnson back to the first team after he was left out of the England game in midweek, something that seemed to have caused a stir between the two managements; and it was his goal that separated the sides at the end of the match.

The home side were comfortably on top for most of the game and Rovers failed to live up to their performance in the last contest between the teams, as The Toffees ended the game with the points.

A long thrown-in on Everton’s right wasn’t cleared by the Blackburn defence and Lee Carsley knocked it back into the danger zone. Johnson picked up an extra flick-on and swivelled to volley the ball past Brad Friedel for the opening goal of the game on his 26th birthday.

Blackburn didn’t look up to much in terms of putting up a strong fight. They were happy to muddle their way through the game and despite some promising spells, they never really applied enough pressure in the last third of the pitch. Emerton had a shot comfortably over the bar with one of their first proper openings, when he should’ve done better, but these were few and far between as they couldn’t muster up enough quality to test the goalkeeper.
As Everton pushed forward in search of more goals, debutant Manuel Fernandes brought saves from Friedel and Everton continued to put pressure on the Rovers’ defensive line.

In contrast, Blackburn looked muted up front and found it difficult to get into the game. Zurab Khizanishvili had the visitors’ best chance of the half when he hit a good volley from distance but the goalkeeper was equal to it and was able to tip the shot over the bar.

The second-half saw a continued Everton dominance of the game but they wasted too many chances as they looked to increase their lead. As Blackburn failed to make the best use of the ball, they had to rely on the chances that came their way which were few and far between.

Blackburn rallied briefly and Paul Gallagher saw his low swerving, dipping shot pushed round the post by the keeper. But they also created too many problems for themselves in defence.

As Rovers pushed up the pitch, they occasionally left too much space at the back, but Everton seemed to be equally inept at exploiting it. Andrew Johnson found himself in space on the right side and, with the defence already stretched, he played a ball across to Fernandes on the left. As Friedel came out to smother the ball, Fernandes battled to win it back but his eventual shot beat the two covering defenders only to weakly dent the side netting.

But Everton didn’t give up. They still managed to create some space for themselves and Johnson found himself in a good position when the ball came into him from the left, but he didn’t get a good connection on his attempted flick and the ball went way off target.

As the game wore on, it looked as though neither team would add to the scoreline as the goalkeepers still spent too much time without being forced into any serious saves.

Beattie nearly bucked the trend of the game by scoring again right at the end of the contest but as he slid in at the far post, he agonisingly couldn’t connect with Cahill’s knock-down.

So the 1-0 victory for Everton means another three points on the board and the hope of European football next season remains alive. But what might cause David Moyes some concern is that they aren’t scoring enough from the chances they are making.

Blackburn must’ve been disappointed with their game after such a convincing win in the Cup but they are still in the top half of the table. Nevertheless, with forthcoming European and FA Cup games they will do well not to be distracted by the time they play Portsmouth in their next league game at the end of February.


Everton: Howard, Neville, Yobo, Stubbs, Lescott, Van der Meyde (Beattie 55), Carsley, Fernandes, Arteta, Cahill, Johnson.

Subs Not Used: Wright, Naysmith, Vaughan, De Silva.

Blackburn: Friedel, Khizanishvili (Todd 83), Samba, Nelsen, Berner, Emerton, Dunn (Roberts 15), Kerimoglu, Bentley, Gallagher (Jeffers 66), McCarthy.

Subs Not Used: Brown, Henchoz.

Att: 35,593

Ref: R Styles (Hampshire).

By Ben Hughes