Everton end 233-minute wait for first goal of the season

Everton 3 Doncaster Rovers 0

Sean Dyche’s bold team selection was rewarded as his side avoided a potential cup upset and arrested an alarming start to the campaign that has added to the seeming perpetual unrest that surrounds Everton.

Dwight McNeil, Iliman Ndiaye, making his first start for the club, and Beto scored on an evening when defeat was not an option for the hosts, following a miserable start to the league campaign.

It meant Dyche naming a near full-strength team while opposite number Grant McCann, focused on lifting Doncaster out of League Two, rested six players.

It may have been a curious change in the usual David versus Goliath cup dynamic but one that was understandable, given the mood music around Goodison following a home defeat by Brighton and 4-0 embarrassment at Tottenham after which a handful of Everton fans abused players at Euston station before their journey home.

“I don’t think I need to mention anything about it other than what the fans have mentioned,” Dyche said last night. “The fans have ­rallied round, they feel that is ­unacceptable.

“There are enough Everton fans in this stadium and around the world and if they say that is unacceptable, they know more than me. There is a line and some people have crossed it. But the masses of fans who seem to have got involved in that moment have dealt with it and said, ‘that’s too far’.”

The opener, after 53 minutes, ended a 233-minute wait for an Everton goal this season.

Everton had negotiated a goalless first half in far from convincing fashion. But Jesper Lindstrom’s run into the Doncaster area early in the second half finally opened up their defence and he found Tim Iroegbunam, who struck a powerful shot towards goal from the edge of the area.

The ball already looked destined for the bottom corner but the slightest of touches off McNeil ensured that was where it landed and Goodison, for the first time this season at least, sounded relieved.

Joe Sbarra wasted the chance of an equaliser, striking an effort straight at keeper Jordan Pickford when the goal was gaping either side of him. “That’s the difference,” McCann said. “The big chances Everton have, they take them; we didn’t.”

And after 74 minutes, that miss proved all the more costly when the tie was decided as Ndiaye received the ball halfway inside the Doncaster half and skilfully skipped 35 yards into the Doncaster area before finishing comfortably.

The game was lumbering to its conclusion by the time Beto easily beat the keeper from five yards after McNeil’s through ball had been squared by Vitalii Mykolenko, six minutes from time.

Ultimately, Dyche’s decision to name a strong side who featured three summer signings making their first starts for the club was rewarded, although not until the final minute of the first half did his team genuinely look like opening the scoring.

Two chances fell to James Garner in quick succession, first when defender Tom Nixon slid in well to block his goalbound shot and then, from the resulting corner, the midfielder struck a post.

It was hardly the sort of start designed to ease the tension around Goodison, ahead of the weekend visit of Bournemouth for a league game which already appears to have taken on the appearance of a “must-win” fixture for Everton.

“Overall, it’s pleasing,” Dyche said. “There has been a lot of noise about our start but we showed we still have a group who are alive here and some good players.”

Match details

Everton (4-2-3-1): Pickford 7; Coleman 6 (Young 67), Keane 5, O’Brien 5, Mykolenko 7; Iroegbunam 7 (Armstrong 85), Garner 7 (Gueye 67); Lindstrom 7 (Harrison 67), Ndiaye 8 (Dixon 79), McNeil 7; Beto 6.

Doncaster (4-2-3-1): Lawlor 7; Nixon 7 (Sterry 56), Olowu 5, McGrath 5, Senior 6 (Sharp 75); Kelly 6 (Broadbent 64), Westbrooke 7 (Sbarra 63); Molyneux 7, Bailey 6, Gibson 5 (Hurst 46); Ironside 5.

Referee: James Bell (South Yorkshire). Att 37,245.