THE HIGH-FIVING CONTINUED LONG after Everton’s players had left the field on Saturday and if the grin that illuminated their manager’s face is any barometer of their satisfaction, it may not have stopped by the time they return from a break in Miami next week. David Moyes might be wary of standing on rooftops and declaring that Everton are back, but the club’s renaissance in recent weeks has been every bit as spectacular as their implosion was after their qualification for the Champions League last May.
While the statistics speak volumes — this was Everton’s sixth win in seven league games and one that took them to within three points of a Uefa Cup place after almost half a season spent worrying about the threat of relegation — it was the challenging circumstances under which victory was achieved against Blackburn Rovers that provided the most telling explanation for the club’s turnaround.
Never has a manager had to hand two goalkeepers their Premiership debuts in the same match, although having watched Richard Wright injure himself in a warm-up against Chelsea in the FA Cup three days earlier, this latest surreal episode may hardly have registered as a surprise with Moyes.
Having taken his Everton bow at Stamford Bridge, only to concede four goals, Iain Turner was determined to keep a clean sheet against Blackburn. In theory, he did, even if it was only for nine minutes before being sent off after charging from his goal and handling Alan Stubbs’s poor header outside the penalty area.
In his place, John Ruddy was afforded a first appearance since signing from Cambridge United last summer, although Blackburn were so tame that, two deflected shots aside, the 19-year-old, who was on loan at Chester City until a few weeks ago, had little to do.
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Blackburn’s glaring inadequacies, however, should take nothing away from an Everton team who, having never stopped harrying and harassing their opponents, can seldom have worked so hard for three points. They were again left to rue missed chances — James McFadden hit the bar with an open goal to aim at and three “goals” were rightly disallowed; two for offside, one for a push — but for the fifth time in their past seven Premiership matches, one goal proved enough.
It was a beauty, too, James Beattie scoring against his former club with a thumping header from the outstanding Mikel Arteta’s quickly taken free kick for his eighth goal of the season.