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 FA Premiership (14); Ewood Park, Blackburn; Sunday 17 November 2002; 3:00pm
   
 
 
Attendance: 26,496
Halftime: 0-1

Facts
Reports
Campbell (19')


Referee: Graham Poll
 

Match Summary

Everton started without Mark Pembridge after all, but it had nothing to do with the club-v-country nonsense; it seems he has sustained a calf injury. Gary Naysmith gets only his fifth League start of the season in his place as part of an otherwise virtually unchanged line-up that sees Stubbs and Yobo selected, with David Weir again on the bench. 

A strong-looking Blackburn side including David Thompson, David Dunn, Damien Duff, and Andy Cole, with ex-Everton defender Craig Short at the back.

Everton where under pressure from the start as Blackburn get a corner after just 15 seconds.  Wright deals with it but after another quick Blackburn attack, Carsley played in Radzinski who really had to stretch to make it count. 

The lively start from both sides continued, with Cole escaping Yobo and putting Wright under extreme pressure, but Wright was man enough to produce a superb save.  Blackburn continued to dominate, with substantial possession inside the Everton half, but it's goals that count and Everton were set to draw first blood.

Then a lovely finish by Kevin Campbell following a long clearance from Richard Wright, with an excellent feed from Lee Carsley and Everton were in front. 

The exchanges ran from end to end for the remainder of the first half, with both teams full of running and creating dangerous chances.  A superb one-handed save from Freidel was all that saved Blackburn from further embarrassment as Campbell headed in a great shot off a corner. 

The Blackburn pressure continued into the second half, with Everton reeling from a string of corners conceded.  Steve Watson replaced Li Tie, who had been having trouble making the right impression in this one, and had received his first Premiership booking for a silly foul.

The pattern of the game continued, with relentless pressure from Blackburn, and stalwart defending by Everton, supplemented by lively moves on the break.  Time for Master Rooney?

The substitution initiative was taken by Souness, who brought on Dwight Yorke to partner Andy Cole.  It looked like a penalty decision from Graham Poll but, amazingly, he gave Johansson a yellow card for diving!  A rare moment for the Graham Poll scrapbook...

Rooney finally came on to replace Naysmith with little more than 10 minutes to go, and probably with instructions to play deep in an effort to try to ease the pressure on Everton's beleaguered defence.  His first dribble needed three Blackburn defenders to dispossess him!

Rooney's injection into the game simply raised the stakes even higher in this pulsating affair, with the youngster taunting his elders mercilessly.  But Blackburn responded in kind, cranking the handle another few notches in their desperation to score.

Stoppage time saw even more heart-stopping assaults on the Everton goal, but Rooney started a great move that saw another superb save from Freidel.

And at the other end, Wright saved Everton with another amazing save just 5 seconds before the end.  An absolutely fabulous win!  FIVE ON THE TROT!!!!!!!




David Moyes: Guides the Blues to a fifth straight league win and a third 1-0 victory away from home


Blackburn v Everton:
Prior League Games
 Overall  
 Blackburn  36
 Everton  15
 Draws  13
 Premiership  
 Blackburn  4
 Everton  3
 Draws  1
 Last Season:

Blackburn 1-0 Everton 


Premiership Scores
Saturday 16 Nov
Arsenal   3-0 Tottenham
Chelsea 1-0 Boro
Man City 0-1 Charlton
Newcastle 2-1 Soton
West Brom 0-0 Aston Villa
Sunday 17 Nov
Liverpool 0-0 Sunderland
Birmingham 0-0 Fulham
Blackburn 0-1 Everton
Leeds 2-4 Bolton
West Ham 1-1 Man Utd
 


Match Facts
 Blackburn Rovers  (4-4-2)
 Blue & white shirts & shorts, white socks
Everton   (4-4-2)
 Black shirts, black shirts, black socks
  Friedel
Johansson
Curtis (72' Yorke)
Short
Neill
Thompson
Tugay (c)
Dunn
Duff
Cole
Ostenstad

Subs not used:  Robinson, Todd,
Jansen, Grabbi,

Yellow Cards: Short (63'),
Johansson (71'), Ostenstad (77')

Red Cards: �
Wright
Hibbert
Stubbs
Yobo
Unsworth
Carsley
Gravesen
Li Tie (56' Watson)
Naysmith (79'Rooney)
Campbell (c)
Radzinski (89' Weir)

Subs not used:
Simonsen, Pistone
 
Yellow Cards: Li Tie (50')

Red Cards: �

Unavailable:

(Injured:) Alexandersson, Ferguson, Linderoth, Pembridge, Rodrigo
(On Loan:) Gerrard, Nyarko Osman, Pilkington

 
Match Reports

Everton Web Sites
ToffeeWeb Match Summary
EvertonFC.com Match Report
When Skies Are Grey Match Report
Blue Kipper Match Report
Everton Fans' Reports
NA Sorry, none filed
Links to Other Media Reports
Electronic Telegraph Match Report
BBC Sport Match Report
FA Premier Match Report
Sky Sports Match Report
Sporting Life Match Report
SoccerNet Match Report
The Guardian Match Report
The Independent Match Report
The Times Match Report
Liverpool Echo Match Report
Daily Post Match Report
Premiership Table
Pos Team Pts
1 Arsenal 32
2 Liverpool 31
3 Chelsea 26
4 Everton 26
5 Man Utd 23
6 Newcastle 22
7 Middlesbrough 21
8 Blackburn 20
9 Tottenham 20
10 Leeds 17
11 Southampton 17
12 Man City 17
13 Fulham 16
14 Aston Villa 16
15 Birmingham 16
16 Charlton 14
17 Sunderland 14
18 Bolton 12
19 West Ham 12
20 West Brom 12

After 17 Nov 2002



Match Preview

So, in the latest assault on the giddy heights of the Premiership and the latter stages of the Worthington Cup, Everton have played 90 minutes against Leeds, 120 minutes against Newcastle and then another 90 minutes against Charlton all in 6 days � but no-one mentions that we may be a bit tired!

If you are winning, then I guess you simply don't need to mention it and, boy, are we winning?  That's 4 consecutive Premiership wins (with 3 consecutive clean sheets) and through to the next round of the Worthless Cup (away to Chelsea � ouch, by far the hardest draw we could have got).

Anyone still feeling optimistic out there?

We now travel to Ewood Park to face an extremely talented Blackburn side.  Their team overflows with attacking talent in Yorke, Cole, Duff, Dunn and Jansen and consolidating that is the very impressive Tugay in central midfield.  Old Reds reject Freidel is also performing very well between the sticks, and delaying a knee-operation so that he can face Everton!

They can however be found short at the back and with question marks over Mark Taylor before the Celtic game they may struggle to contain Radzinski and Campbell if anyone else is unavailable.  Hopefully that bruising and ultimately demoralizing encounter with Celtic will have left then drained

Our form is nothing short of exceptional at the moment and if Gravesen can stifle Tugay then Yobo should be able to marshall our backline sufficient to leave Wright to mop up what remains.  The best news this season was Yobo saying he wanted to stay � World class and no mistake.

Again it's a case of hanging in for an hour and hurting them after that.

1-1 I see this time � Radzinski again, but as I write this I am hoping for extra time in their game against Celtic in which case 3 points and still top 4!

BlueForEver



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