By gum, Wayne ties up the victory

By Chris Kirwan
December 14 2002

Rooney made sure that the post-match comments were not about his appearance but were about another match-winning goal. He struck in the 26th minute to put the Blues into a 2-1 lead that they would hang on to.

Everton had fallen behind to an Andy Cole goal after only 6 minutes, but replied through a Lee Carsley tap in after Rooney had hit the post. Then Rooney took centre stage. He capitalised on defensive uncertainty and thumped the ball past Brad Friedel. Tony Cottee was impressed, reflecting,

"It was just a long kick from Richard Wright. Everyone else left it but Rooney wasn't having that. It was a goal worthy of winning any game."

Blackburn had plenty of the game and they will feel aggrieved to return to Ewood with nothing to show for two games against the Blues in which they had plenty of chances. Souness said,

"Same old Blackburn! Play lots of good football, have the best of the game, create lots of chances, but end up losing, the second goal was particularly disappointing."

But Souness can’t take anything away from the Blues who replied to the critics who had said the bubble had burst by getting a crucial victory ahead of next Sunday’s game at Anfield. A delighted Moyes reflected,

“It was a strange game, with lots of ups and lots of downs in it. There were chances for both teams, but fortunately for us, we got the one that counted to get us all three points.”

On his decision to start Rooney he stated,

I thought that this would be a good game to give Wayne an opportunity. I wanted to make sure he had games under his belt if Tommy Radzinski got an injury. He wasn’t great at Chelsea in the Cup – this was a chance for him to get his level of match fitness up.”

The Blues go above the Red-Shite in the table, and if the R-S fail to get anything from their game at Sunderland then the Blues will head into next Sunday’s Merseyside derby above them.