Rooney's glory tune leaves Rovers flat

Everton 2 Blackburn Rovers 1

Wayne Rooney added to his growing collection of memorable goals to decide a pulsating match which could have produced far more than its mere three.

The recently crowned BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year's 24th-minute strike on his first Premiership start since his 17th birthday was a classic. He hit the post in the build-up to Everton's first, could have scored two more and set up what could have easily been a further couple.

And yet Graeme Souness was able to claim with some justification that perhaps his Blackburn side had arguably played the better football and created the better chances, continuing to threaten even after they had Lucas Neill sent off for a second bookable offence after 73 minutes.

That was when Richard Wright came to Everton's rescue with some truly excellent saves, but it was Rooney's contribution in the end that will lodge in the memory bank.

His defining moment came when he latched on to a long clearance from Wright nodded it ahead and accelerated through the Rovers defence to finish right-footed inside the far post. It was a goal almost as good as the strike against Arsenal with which he sensationally announced his arrival as the most exciting prospect in the game.

Rooney's goal put Everton ahead after they had fallen behind in the first five minutes. Rovers had already gone close through Garry Flitcroft and Dwight Yorke before David Thompson took a free-kick on the left and Andy Cole rose above a static defence to head past Wright as he came charging out of his goal.

Yorke put another good chance wide before Everton equalised, Kevin Campbell running at the right-hand side of Blackburn's defence, whipped the ball across for Rooney to half-volley on to the post. Lee Carsley, following up alertly, knocked in the rebound.

After his goal, a marvellous piece of control from Rooney created another opportunity which this time he pulled wide of the target.

After the interval, a less discussed aspect of his play and his ability to see and execute long dashes came to the fore. Twice he picked out Carsley with uncanny accuracy and twice Carsley missed the target when the hard work had been done for him by his youthful team-mate.

That left the result wide open, although Rovers suffered a major blow when Neill was sent off for his second yellow card, awarded for a rather innocuous shove on Tony Hibbert.

"As soon as I saw who the referee was I knew we were in trouble,'' said Souness. "Graham Barber sent Lucas Neill off before and referees don't like being proved wrong, like he was in that case. But even with 10 men, we were still the better side.''

Blackburn's continuing ability to get through an Everton defence, in which Joseph Yobo is suddenly not quite the commanding figure he was, kept Wright busy, with an acrobatic save from Craig Short's header his best.

Even deep into injury time, Yorke's header could have been on the way to the net, if his team-mate, Martin Taylor, had not got in the way.

David Moyes, the Everton manager, readily admitted it was a match that could have gone either way. "It was a game of highs and lows, with chances at both ends and mistakes at both ends," he said.

The singular difference perhaps on this occasion was that he has Rooney on his books. "It's not the Wayne Rooney show, but we're aware of how important he is to us,'' Moyes said. "He's got all the attributes, but more importantly he's got football intelligence.''