Wimbledon 0 - 3 Everton

Half-time: 0 - 0

David Unsworth was moved into a five-man back line retaining Michael Ball. In midfield, with Nick Barmby suspended the surprise addition ahead of Scot Gemmill was the head-down wing-runner, Danny Cadamarteri. Up-front, Joe-Max Moore was given his second start with Francis Jeffers on the bench. All changes which were critical to the ultimate victory.

After a bizarre first-minute incident saw Sullivan scrambling to hold a Pembridge corner on – or perhaps just over – the goal line, a number of good chances went begging in the first half. Campbell was getting caught offside numerous times, and Cadamarteri failed to score with a free header from 5 yards.  But both players made amends early in the second half, combining almost identically for Campbell to head a pair of goals that gave Everton a dominant lead.

Then Campbell turned provider for Joe-Max Moore to calmly convert a well-constructed third goal that left the normally nutty Dons punch-drunk and lifeless. A very important win in the bag for Everton.

At least you don't get soaked nowadays at Selhurst Park (fond memories of 0-0 draws stuck on that lovely open terrace...), and the chipy up the road does a decent chicken and chips and you are always sure of being able to pay into the ground....BUT there are no pubs around the ground, they go in for this artificial 'family entertainment experience' type of bollocks (I ask you, a frigging trumpet sounded a cavalry charge when they got a corner... Jesus!) and you know that Wimbledon will always give us a load of stick on the park.

Still, the Blueboys came out to at least 7,000 travelling fans and the away support was pretty bloody good all round. More than a few goes of 'the team that's gonna win the FA Cup (again!)...' but we need to get a few more songs together for Wembley otherwise we're going to sound woeful.

Wimbledon started strongly with Cort and Leaburn looking powerful, but we nearly squeaked one in early, which gave us the feeling that we could have this lot. Dunney and Balley looked a bit lost, but Balley was on the whole much more effective pushed up on the left. Pembridge worked hard but most of his passing was vague and sideways (well, spot the difference between him and Collins...).

Danny should play that slot every week. He was the real difference between us and them; they backed off every time he had the ball in the second half. Both of Kev's goals were from pinpoint, speedy crosses from him.

Rhino made some pretty good runs and crosses throughout the match and looked very up to the job as left-back, with some accurate hoofs to Kev and even some neater shorter passes to savour as well. Joe-Max looks the part to me as support to Kev. Always foot-in, always movement, and he chases back to put them under pressure.

Kev was superb all game. Positionally faultless, he bagged two headers and selflessly set one up when everyone expected him to have a dig for his hat-trick. Don Hutch had a 'defensive' first half, but was superb in the opening 20 minutes of the second. Tommy did the things that Gerrard and Simo don't do: boss the box. He came for crosses cleanly and did the basics well (unlike his Wimbledon counterpart, whose clearances got him a deserved 'dodgy keeper' song).

Marks:

• Tommy 7
• Dunney 6 Looked a bit lost, but tried. A smooth Brazillian shimy during the 1st half from him as well :-)
• Wier 7 Sound against route-one tactics from them
• Goughy 7 Same as Wier, but don't keep doing backheaders all the time!!
• Rhino 8 Superb. Bossed the left wing, and some good running on the overlap
• Bally 6 looked much better pushed up, but still some passing was off the mark, and positionally dodgy sometimes
• Pembridge 7 ok, maybe not the best player ever in royal blue, but he worked his bollocks off. Some dodgy passing and shadow chasing. After slagging his lack of creativity early on, I watched him for the rest of the match. I wouldn't like to be Mrs Pembridge tonight coz he must be knackered.
• Hutch 8 Looked arsed, didn't look arsed, then looked arsed again. Hot and cold, but without doubt our most pivotal player. Pay him his wages now.
• Danny 9 Superb. Dont slag him off for trying to run at defences, coz when he's got his act together he is hot. Made both Kev's goals.
• Kev 8 Superb again. As one of the Why-are-we-buying-him? brigade, how many times should I take back what I said? Looked ineffective with Franny against Soton, but looked the business against some bloody good defenders today. But he was offside for two efforts that were disallowed. Some great linking play as well.
• JMM 7 Looks a good prospect. Powerful, skillful and full of running. Give him a run alongside Kev.
• Xavier 5 only on for last 10, but looked behind the game and slow off the mark.

Afterwards, Wimbledon's manager Egil Olsen denied reports that he intended to leave the noise and smoke of London when his contract expires at the end of next season, though this was not the sort of performance to encourage his long-term hopes for the club. "In periods we played well, but not for long enough," he said. "Relegation is always a worry, but I think we will survive."

Everton, moving into the top 10 with only one defeat now in 11 League and Cup games, profited from the home side's vulnerability on their left flank after the full-back Alan Kimble had taken a heavy whack early on. He recovered sufficiently to continue, but not to prevent Cadamarteri running at him to devastating effect.

Ben Thatcher would have been an obvious substitute, if available, but he was starting a well deserved two-match suspension for elbowing Sunderland's Nicky Summerbee.

Kimble clearly did not trust himself to get tight on Cadamarteri, who in his first senior game for a year was allowed to go at a retreating defence and pick his spot. Twice, in the 53rd and 61st minutes, he picked out Campbell; firstly for a glancing header as Neil Sullivan unwisely decided to come for the cross, then for a firmer one with the central defenders hoping for an offside decision.

Two minutes later, Don Hutchison's volley from a wayward clearance set Campbell free for a cross that gave Moore, the American striker, his third goal in four games. So the decision to give Francis Jeffers a rest looked better than ever, while at the other end the 37-year-old Richard Gough marshalled his troops so well that Thomas Myhre behind him barely needed to dirty his gloves, let alone his knees.

The rush of goals was something of a relief for Sky Sports, though many viewers must already have deserted this esoteric choice of fixture during or after a dreadful first half. The most exciting part of it was the opening 90 seconds. After Wimbledon's Hermann Hreidarsson failed to clear, Mark Pembridge had a shot blocked for a corner. When he took it, Sullivan snatched at the ball and all but dropped it over his line. The referee's assistant, Ceri Richards, was well placed to adjudicate and did Wimbledon another favour later in the half, raising his flag to indicate that Campbell was offside as he drove Moore's pass beyond the goalkeeper.

That cost the former Arsenal man a hat-trick and the match ball. He was voted man of the match by Sky viewers, but generously handed the champagne to Cadamarteri, whom he felt was a more deserving cause. Unlike the game, it was a close call.

A few boos sufficed after Everton, not usually the most successful side on their travels, had won at a canter. Three second-half goals did the trick, after the most sluggish and unappealing of starts, and the fact that Wimbledon – the never-say-die battlers of old – offered so little in response will be of great concern to Egil Olsen, their manager. So much for the club's recent mini-break in Gran Canaria because of their FA Cup exit.

Olsen does not need reminding, either, that Wimbledon lie only four points away from the relegation zone in the FA Carling Premiership. Great survivors they may be but time catches up with everyone and a pack that includes Southampton, Derby County and Bradford City is closing fast. "We played well in periods but those periods were not long enough," Olsen said. "The match could have gone either way until the first goal but then we lost our heads and our shape. We were not good enough. Relegation is always a big worry but I think we will stay up."

Some spells can often defy adequate description, and from the first half alone, it was impossible to draw any conclusion other than it could only get better. In mitigation, the pitch was sticky and strewn with divots and the wind swirled in unpredictable gusts, but Premiership players should be able to master such awkward conditions.

Moore, the American, was more successful than most and Cadamarteri, starting his first game for Everton for a year, tried hard, too. For Wimbledon, Gayle marauded gamely up front alongside the malcoordinated Leaburn. It is small wonder that he has now failed to score in 45 matches, or that he was replaced by Andresen in the 65th minute.

At least there was a tinge of controversy to relieve the tedium when Pembridge's corner swerved into, and immediately out of, the arms of Sullivan, the Wimbledon goalkeeper. Graham Barber, the referee, first looked across to Ceri Richards, his assistant, who ruled that the ball had not fully crossed the goalline – a decision later substantiated by television replays.

After 30 minutes of gentle thrust and counter thrust, interrupted by the occasional spicy challenge from Hutchison, Dunne or Kimble, Everton should have gone ahead. Unsworth waddled his frame along the left flank and crossed for Cadamarteri to head straight at Sullivan.

Wimbledon returned apparently revitalised for the second half, with Cort driving into the side-netting from an acute angle, only for them to be blown away by three goals in ten minutes. Cadamarteri created the first, with a hanging centre that Campbell nodded in as Sullivan punched thin air, and then provided a replica cross from the right for Campbell to glance in his twelfth goal of the season.

Sullivan, this time, was not at fault; his defence had gone missing. He could hardly be blamed, either, when Everton completed their swift treble in the 62nd minute and effectively ended the contest. Andresen's poor clearance was volleyed back by Hutchison to Campbell who crossed for Moore to beat Sullivan at close range for his third goal in four matches.

Everton were in almost total control after the interval and while they were helped by an inept Wimbledon, the visitors must be given full credit for a scoreline that seemed highly unlikely after a sterile first half.

Manager Walter Smith's tactics and selection were spot on. Everton stopped the supply of deep crosses from Kenny Cunningham and Alan Kimble and, with Richard Gough outstanding in defence, the FA Cup quarter-finalists were never troubled by a Wimbledon forward line usually a test for any back four.

In midfield Everton scrapped for domination and, having won this, controlled the second half to an extent that was embarrassing for Wimbledon.

Everton, who beat Wimbledon 4-0 at Goodison Park in August, came to Selhurst Park with just two wins in the previous 16 Premiership games. "It was a very important victory," said two-goal Kevin Campbell. "After the results on Saturday, when so many sides below us won, we were looking over our shoulder."

Campbell's goals came from crosses by Danny Cadamarteri and he laid on the other for Joe-Max Moore. In between, the former Arsenal striker gave ample evidence why he has been caught offside more than any other Premiership player this season.

He fails to look across the line of defence to see whether he is onside but there can be no criticism of Campbell's finishing even though he was considerably helped by the Wimbledon defence.

The match never came to life until the second half, when Everton stepped up a gear. After 54 minutes Cadamarteri, making his first Premiership start in a year, centred and, with Neil Sullivan failing to take the cross, Campbell headed the ball into an empty net.

Six minutes later Cadamarteri again crossed from the right and this time the Wimbledon defence was statuesque as Campbell headed his 12th goal of the season.

Campbell turned provider in the 63rd minute, laying on the chance for the unmarked Moore to tap in his third Everton goal.

Wimbledon manager Egil Olsen said: "Everton would like to play us all the time. It was very disappointing. The big worry is always relegation but I am optimistic we can survive."

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