Everton 1 Blackburn Rovers 0

Last updated : 10 February 2007 By Footymad Previewer
Everton pulled away from Blackburn Rovers in the race for European places but the scoreline was less convincing than the performance.

The Toffees welcomed Rovers to Goodison Park keen to extinguish the memory of January's 4-1 FA Cup defeat to the visitors.

Since that heavy loss, Everton had conceded just one goal and were unbeaten in three and entered the fray full of confidence after a deserved draw at Anfield last week.

Blackburn's recent form had been patchy since the FA Cup game, with one win and two losses, Mark Hughes would have been eager to not let Everton open up a five point gap in the race for a top six finish.

Everton enjoyed a fantastic start after ten minutes when Lee Carsley got on to a long throw from Phil Neville. The Republic of Ireland international headed back to Mikel Arteta, who lobbed the ball over Tugay's head to drop beautifully for Andy Johnson to volley home from six yards.

Things got worse for Blackburn as Jason Roberts replaced David Dunn after just 15 minutes after Dunn failed to recover from an earlier collision with Neville.

Andy van der Meyde missed a golden opportunity to put Everton 2-0 up after Johnson provided a wicked cross from the left flank, but the Dutchman inexplicably tried a fancy scissor-kick, but was left red-faced after missing the ball completely.

Van der Meyde was embarrassed again minutes later. After winning the ball he then crossed straight into the path of a grateful Brett Emerton, who ran towards Tim Howard's goal but struck too early from 30 yards and the Australian's effort flew over.

Joleon Lescott turned provider to Johnson on 29 minutes, but the striker took too long to shoot and was blocked by Bruno Berner.

Everton by this time were beginning to take Blackburn apart with wave after wave of attacks. Worryingly for David Moyes though, none of the attacks were yielding goals.

Johnson put a van der Meyde corner narrowly over and hugely impressive debutant Manuel Fernandes had two chances to increase the lead.

He shot straight at Brad Freidel after being set up by Johnson and then hit the side netting with the rebound.

Tim Cahill also came close as the impressive Toffees penned a beleaguered Blackburn in their own half.

Rovers could have equalised on the stroke of half-time though as Arteta was caught napping. Zurab Khizanishvili stole in and unleashed a 30-yard screamer that flew just over Howard's crossbar.

After the way his team had played though, Mark Hughes would have been happy to be only one goal down at the interval.

Howard had to pull off a smart save straight after the restart when Paul Gallagher unleashed a drive from the right, which saw the Everton keeper at full stretch to palm the ball away.

Arteta stunned the Blackburn defence with some wing wizardry as he jinked and turned to set up Johnson after 52 minutes. The goal was left gaping but the striker managed somehow to let the ball go under his feet and the ball rolled harmlessly away.

James Beattie replaced the unpredictable van der Meyde as Moyes went for the goals his side's performance deserved.

Hughes showed his frustration as he lambasted Arteta for an innocuous challenge on Khizanishvili which the referee saw nothing in, but left the Georgian defender dropping as if shot by a sniper.

Former Blue Francis Jeffers was roundly booed when replacing the injured Gallagher on 65 minutes.

Johnson almost doubled the lead 13 minutes from time when he connected with an Arteta corner, but he directed his effort straight at Friedel.

Andy Todd was booked a minute after coming off the bench for a foul on Arteta, as the Spaniard threatened the Blackburn goal with another pacy run.

Everton were worthy winners but Moyes will be concerned at the lack of goals after such a dominant performance.