Ball practice pays off for Blackburn

PRACTICE invariably makes perfect and a week spent working with a new ball reaped rich rewards for Blackburn Rovers yesterday.

Booking their place in the fourth round of the FA Cup with a display crammed full of endeavour, manager Mark Hughes revealed that most of his side’s preparations for their third round clash with Everton involved getting used to the competition’s ball of choice.

Lighter than the one used in the Premiership, Hughes had urged Blackburn’s forwards to shoot on sight at Goodison Park but even he would have been taken aback by events in the first 20 minutes of this encounter which saw them establish an unassailable lead.

For Tim Howard, in contrast, it was an afternoon to forget. Culpable for Blackburn’s opening two goals, scored by rookie Matt Derbyshire and Morten Gamst Pedersen, he was clearly unnerved and never recovered his poise.

“We have had the new ball at our training ground all week and we saw that it was unpredictable with its flight,” said Hughes after his side administered Everton’s heaviest ever home defeat to top flight opposition in the FA Cup.

“We tried a couple of shots early on and it worked for us. We profited from a couple of breaks. That’s what happened. It was a great performance and a great result. I picked a team [Hughes made five changes] that I felt could win the game.”

So it proved. Having burst out of the blocks at a pace their hosts could not match, it was no surprise when Blackburn grabbed the lead through Derbyshire’s opportunism that left Howard red faced.

There seemed little danger when Pedersen picked the ball up 25 yards out but Howard inexplicably allowed his shot to squirm from his grasp and Derbyshire seized his chance, sliding the ball in from two yards.

Worse was to follow for the US international. When Pedersen was fouled 25 yards out by Leon Osman, the odds were against the Norwegian scoring but his poor positioning handed Pedersen an opportunity he was determined not to spurn.

“We noticed the ball moved in training but not a great deal,” grumbled Everton’s manager David Moyes.

“I think Tim should have saved the first one and I’m not sure the free-kick has gone in the corner of the goal for the second, either.”

If that was hard to stomach for Moyes, Blackburn’s third would have left him seething. There didn’t seem much on for David Bentley when he picked up possession on 38 minutes but a clipped ball forward to Paul Gallagher ended up causing chaos.

A wonderful first touch allowed the striker to hoodwink Joleon Lescott and Joseph Yobo — who somehow contrived to kick at fresh air as he attempted to tackle — and Gallagher made no mistake in rifling past the exposed Howard from 10 yards. Game over.

“I put my trust in the squad and they never let me down,” said Hughes whose side have responded magnificently to a 6-2 drubbing at Arsenal before Christmas. “We’ve won four games on the trot now and the only goals we have conceded have been penalties.”

For all Everton’s second half huff and puff, it would take a generous stretch of the imagination to say Blackburn were ever in danger of being pegged back. Consolation came in the form of an Andrew Johnson penalty after Mikel Arteta had been chopped down.

Substitute Benedict McCarthy rubbed salt in the wounds in injury time with an emphatic finish past the disconsolate Howard.

“We engineered our own down fall,” Moyes said. It was impossible to disagree. All Everton have left to play for now is pride but for Hughes and company, they won’t be putting those new balls away just yet.

EVERTON: Howard, Neville, Yobo (Vaughan 78), Lescott, Nuno Valente (Naysmith 43), Osman, Arteta, Carsley, Van der Meyde, Johnson, Anichebe.

BLACKBURN: Friedel, Ooijer, Khizanishvili (Henchoz 37), Todd, McEveley, Bentley, Mokoena, Kerimoglu, Pedersen, Gallagher (Emerton 63), Derbyshire (McCarthy 70).

Referee: A Marriner (W Midlands).