Match Review

The Everton bandwagon continues to gather pace as David Moyes's braves overcame Newcastle at St James Park on penalties after the two sides were deadlocked at 3-3 following extra-time.  Richard Wright was the hero of the hour, saving two spot kicks and doing enough to force Michael Chopra into blasting a third over the bar as the Blues overcame David Unsworth's uncharacteristic miss to win the shootout 3-2.

It was Everton's first win on penalties since 1970 and went a little way towards making up for two successive exits after shootouts in the last two seasons.  The result also marks a fourth successive victory for the first time since 1991, although the actual match finished level after 120 minutes, so they'll have to beat Charlton on Saturday to silence the nit-pickers!

Although Bobby Robson had threatened to rest many of his best players, he put out a strong line-up from which only Alan Shearer and Gary Speed were notable absentees.  Everton handed Wayne Rooney his first start away from Goodison Park and recalled David Weir at the expense of Joseph Yobo who was presumably rested.  Allesandro Pistone and Gary Naysmith also returned to the starting line-up, with Tomasz Radzinski, Steve Watson and Kevin McLeod on the bench.

It was Everton who nearly drew first blood as early as the first minute, Kevin Campbell heading over from Lee Carsley's well-struck free kick.  The home side then had two opportunities in a minute from the midfield, Wright saving well first from Kieron Dyer and then saving Weir from a costly error by denying Hugo Viana.

With 11 minutes gone, though, Everton did break the deadlock.  Rooney won a corner, Naysmith swung it in and Campbell rose to head past Richard Harper to make it 1-0.

However, the goal did little to improve a scrappy affair and, although the hosts were playing marginally better football, they had little to show for it beyond Clarence Acuna's shot into the side-netting and a long-range effort by Dyer.  Everton, meanwhile, were forced into an early change, Steve Watson coming on for Tobias Linderoth who appeared to have pulled a hamstring.

The second half was eventually to be a marked improvement on the first.  Four minutes after the restart, Wright made another couple of good stop, this time from Lua Lua and then Viana as the Magpies began to press their home-field advantage.

Radzinski came on for Li Tie on 56 minutes and, after Naysmith had forced a wonderful save from Harper, the Canadian striker had a close-range shot deflected over the bar.  At the other end, Laurent Robert, who had come with Chopra and Nolberto Solano in a triple substitution, was put clean through but Wright snuffed out the opportunity with aplomb.

Within five minutes, however, Newcastle were ahead.  First, lax defending allowed Viana's throughball to reach Dyer and he fired past Wright to level the tie.  The England midfielder then crashed an unstoppable long-range shot into the top corner to make it 2-1 a minute later to turn the match on its head and send Newcastle on their way towards the next round.

Steve Watson had other ideas, though; after Rooney had made a terrific run down the line and cut the ball back, the native Geordie smacked home the equaliser from six yards.  2-2 and extra time was beckoning when Rooney skipped past two players in the manner which is becoming his trademark before shooting inches over and then Wright and Pistone combined in defence to prevent an almost certain goal as time ticked to the end of the 90.

The first period of extra time was just eight minutes old when Pistone buried the ball past Wright and into his own net to once again swing this now pulsating tie in the home side's favour.  But, five minutes into the second half, a Campbell shot was heading in when Caldwell punched the ball off the line and, although Rooney put the rebound ball in, the referee inexplicably pulled play back for a penalty.  Both Rooney and Campbell staked their claim to take the kick, but Unsworth stepped forward in his customary style to level things up once more and send the tie to penalties.

Having won the toss, Newcastle elected to kick first and Dyer made no mistake with his effort while Unsworth put his too close to Harper and saw his penalty saved.  Solano and Watson then scored the next two to make it 2-1 to the Magpies before Wright pulled off his first act of heroism, saving from Viana.  Rooney then got his wish, stepping forward and stroking the ball home to make it two penalties apiece.

Chopra elected to take the Magpies' third and after he ballooned over, Campbell fired Everton's third successful kick past Harper to set Wright up for another save, which he duly delivered by parrying Robert's shot to send Everton into the Fourth Round.