Doncaster 1 – 2 Everton
Beto scored on his Everton debut and Arnaut Danjuma struck an 88th-minute winner as the Blues got themselves out of jail against Doncaster Rovers following one of the worst first-half performances in living memory.
Sean Dyche’s men were trailing the team currently sitting at the bottom of League Two with 17 minutes left having managed a paltry one shot on target when Beto, on as a half-time substitute for his compatriot Youssef Chermiti, atoned for a wild miss a few moments earlier to score the equaliser.
Then, after both he and Beto had hit the woodwork and as the lottery of a penalty shootout loomed, Danjuma picked his way past a couple of defenders and fired home to squeeze Everton into the next round but it was, on the whole, an embarrassingly bad showing from the visitors.
Of most concern to Dyche, perhaps, was that he had named a strong and largerly experienced line-up to face the club sitting 92nd in the pyramid, with Michael Keane returning to the line-up, Vitalii Mykolenko and Ben Godfrey making their first starts of the season and Chermiti making his full debut following a promising cameo off the bench against Wolves on Saturday.
Unfortunately, like fellow youngster Lewis Dobbin, who made his second senior start, Chermiti struggled to make an impact on the game while Everton as a whole looked utterly devoid of purpose and quality for the first hour of the contest.
An early panic at the back had set the tone and Tommy Rowe’s shot from an unmarked position that flew narrowly over with a quarter of an hour gone was a warning sign that the Blues couldn’t be complacent against their League Two hosts.
Not long afterwards, Broadbent’s effort was blocked and Zane Westbrooke lashed the rebound inches the wrong side of the post while Luke Molyneux was unfortunate not to be able to control an awkward bounce in oceans of space in the box as Everton continued to look vulnerable at the back.
It took Everton 40 minutes to fashion their first real opening when Abdoulaye Doucouré and Danjuma exchanged passes and the Dutchman advanced to the near post but he dragged a left-foot shot horribly across goal.
Four minutes later, Doncaster took the lead. Molyneux was afforded all the time he needed to swing a cross back into the area following a set-piece and Joe Ironside rose highest, albeit in an offside position, to glance it past Jordan Pickford who had gambled off his line and been caught cold.
Amadou Onana had a chance in first-half stoppage time off Chermiti’s neat lay-off but his shot was beaten away and it was the home side who almost doubled their lead going into the break but Pickford made a point-blank save to deny Westbrook.
No doubt unhappy with what he had seen in the first 45 minutes, Dyche withdrew Chermiti, Nathan Patterson and Dobbin in favour of Beto, Ashley Young and Idrissa Gueye and it led to a small but perceptible improvement in the display.
Yet it was Doncaster who threatened first and when Modu Faal’s shot struck Mykolenko’s arm on the way to goal and the rebound fell to Molyneux, Gueye had to block the Rovers man’s goal-bound shot to ensure the deficit wasn’t doubled.
Everton started to probe more after the hour mark, though, with Gueye making a world of difference in the middle, the ball sticking up front more regularly with Beto now leading the line and the Portuguese getting on the end of a Mykolenko cross that he just couldn’t get on top of.
The new £26m had an even better chance a few minutes later then the ball sat up invitingly for him from about 10 yards out by he miscued awfully with his weaker foot, to the delight of a jeering home crowd.
Beto atoned just a couple of minutes later, though, with Everton’s first goal of 2023-24 when Doucouré played the ball in behind the Doncaster defence, the Portuguese galloped past the last man and flicked it deftly past the onrushing goalkeeper to make it 1-1.
Tarkowski came on for Mykolenko with 15 minutes to go with the Ukrainian picking up a knock before Young saw a shot parried by Ian Lawlor and Beto thought he had doubled his tally with a terrific, leaping header but the ball hammered off the post and back into play.
Almost immediately afterwards, Danjuma tried to curl one into the far corner but his shot bounced off the top of the crossbar and James Garner’s placed side-foot effort was blocked on the way to goal by Jack Senior.
The winner arrived just in time, however, as Danjuma collected the ball just inside the penalty area, skipped his way along the line of defenders and then cut a shot back across Lawlor that left the keeper wrong-footed and beaten.
There were chances to pad the lead and avoid all doubt but both substitute Neal Maupay and Garner saw attempts charged down and though Beto put the ball in the net deep into stoppage time, the lay-off from Gueye had come too late by which time the striker had strayed offside.
So a huge sigh of relief for Everton who made heavy work of what should have been a routine Second Round cup tie. They’re in the hat for the next round but they and their manager will know they will have to be several orders of magnitude better, both on their return to Yorkshire on Saturday lunchtime to face Sheffield United in the Premier League and in the Third Round against Aston Villa next month.