Striker James Beattie headed the 33rd-minute winner as the Toffees held on for three valuable Premiership points to the delight of Moyes. He said: “That was what I expect from Everton players. They never give in and they are turning a lot of things around from the beginning of the season. The effort was incredible.”
But Blackburn boss Mark Hughes, who had watched his side struggle to put fourth-choice keeper John Ruddy under any pressure following Turner’s dismissal for handling outside the box, said: “We didn’t deserve anything. We let ourselves go behind to a team down to 10 men. We switched off and conceded a bad goal.
“James Beattie was superb up front. He messed us about and we never really tested a fourth-choice keeper. The game was there to win. Lucas Neill accepted blame for the goal. He was organsising other people when he should have been doing his job.”
What looked like a personal disaster for Turner on his League debut for the club was averted by a spectacular winning goal from Beattie and Blackburn only testing the replacement keeper twice all afternoon. Beattie said: “I looked at the lads when Iain was sent off and none of their heads dropped. You could see determination in their eyes.”
Under pressure from Brett Emerton, Alan Stubbs headed back to Turner, who appeared to lose his bearings and handled the ball deliberately outside his box. Referee Peter Walton applied the letter of the law and the 22-year-old walked.
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Senior goalkeepers Nigel Martyn and Richard Wright are out injured, so up popped 19-year-old Ruddy when James McFadden, who had earlier missed an open goal, was sacrificed.
Blackburn seemed intent on passing Everton to death in an effort to capitalise on their greater numbers and the ploy seemed to be working when Phil Neville was booked for a clumsy tackle on Steven Reid. Everton, however, snatched the lead when Mikel Arteta’s delightfully curled free kick was met with a well-timed run and header from Beattie that sent the ball crashing into the corner of the net.
Moyes courted trouble at half-time by cupping his hands to his ears as the ref was booed off but later played down the incident by saying he thought the sending off decision was an “honest” one.
STAR MAN: Nuno Valente (Everton)
Player ratings. Everton: Turner 5, Hibbert 7, Weir 8, Stubbs 8, Valente 9, Arteta 7, Neville 6, Cahill 8, Osman 7 (Kilbane 60min, 6), McFadden 5 (Ruddy 9min, 7), Beattie 8 (Carsley 80min, 6).
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Blackburn: Friedel 5, Neill 6, Todd 6, Nelsen 6, Gray 6, Emerton 6 (Peter 58min, 6), Bentley 5 (Kuqi 72min, 6), Savage 5 (Tugay 58min, 6), Reid 5, Sinama Pongolle 6, Bellamy 4.
Scorer: Everton: Beattie 33
Referee: P Walton
Attendance: 35,615