Sunderland (h)

Everton 2 v 0 Sunderland. Tues. 9th April, 2002.

@ The AutoQuest Stadium, Widnes. Att: 501

Rooney Makes Step Up Look Easy

Everton : Gerrard, Cleland, O'Hanlon, Pilkington, Southern, Pembridge, Curran, McLeod, Moore, Osman, Chadwick.

Bench: Rooney for Chadwick (60m), Eaton for Moore (60m), Pettinger, Moogan, Crowder.

Scorers: Moore (23m), Pembridge (59m).

Sunderland: Macho, Ramsden, James, Clark, Byrne, Medina, Bellion, Thirlwell, Kyle, Brown, Butler.

Everton dominated the 1st half, & should have been a few goals up before the break. They had to rely on a penalty from skipper Joe-Max Moore. He slotted after Nick Chadwick had been brought down by the keeper. Both Chadwick & Southern missed chances. Gerrard did well to save two efforts from Sunderland..

Half-time: Everton 1, Sunderland 0.

The second half was crap. There were two exciting bits though. First was Everton's second goal, which came from a beauty by Pembo. He hit this volley from about 20 metres out. It flew in. The second was when wonder boy, Wayne Rooney came on for his 1st reserve game in a Blue shirt. There wasn't many at the game, but the mood of the crowd changed when he came on. A buzz went around the ground. Rooney didn't disappoint. He got a few shots in, passed the ball well, chased , & got stuck in. Rooney was denied a goal when his shot was cleared off the line.

Everton deserved their win, with the back four of Cleland, McLeod, Pilkington and O'Hanlon doing well .

Andy Holden says: "They were a good Sunderland side. But I think our lads worked hard right from the first whistle to the last whistle. It just echoed what we did last season. We were a young side last season and I just told them to make sure they didn’t get sucker-punched. They mirrored the first team to be honest, hitting diagonal balls for the big man to head down, but Sean and George did ever so well on the night and credit must go to the two full-backs - Kevin Mcleod and Alec Cleland."

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