The eyebrow-raising abscence of Hinchcliffe caused yet another reshuffle. After the Bolton victory I anticipated a modicum of changes Kendall undoubtedly surprised me with the scope of his changes – a recall for Tony Grant an intriguing central defensive berth for Claus Thomsen and a reversion to a five man defence. The line up was Myhre in goal, Thomas, Dunne, Thomsen, Tiler and Ball strung across the back, Grant and Farrelly in central midfield with Barmby slightly advanced of them and Dunc and Cadamarteri up front. Oster was dropped, no quibbles with that he has looked short of confidence and the crowd has started to get on his back. I was also pleased to see the return of Tony Grant and that Claus Thomsen got another chance.

The performance was similar to many of late – hard working, solid defensively but still not playing well and looking somewhat impotent up front. In the first half we had the better of the possession and forced a whole string of corners, most of which were wasted through poor delivery by Nick Barmby. Dunc was leading the line well, Danny was causing problems up front, and the defence had a relatively easy ride the only scare being when the otherwise immaculate Thomsen got caught in possession. Despite the general competence of the display there was no real spark, we never tested Hislop and we never really looked like scoring.

Half time came and went without any real change to the pattern of the match. We continued to look competent without really looking like scoring, in fact much like Newcastle. The match turned on the arrival of our nemesis Ian Rush, he came on for the totally ineffectual Asprilla and Newcastle immediately looked more dangerous. That's not to say they were actually that good, it's just that they improved, aided by a couple of somewhat fortuitous off-side decisions going the way of Rush.

Despite never really looking like scoring almost typically Newcastle did score and naturally it was through old Big Nose himself. Gillespie hit a first time cross into the box, it took a deflection off Ball and went beyond the far post where Barnes reached it and played it against Dunne's leg from where it looped up over Myhre and into the path of the onrushing Rush and Thomsen, Rush slid in and bundled it over the line. A scrappy, fortuitous goal and one that wasn't deserved.

We still had plenty of time to secure a deserved equaliser but you never had the feeling it was inevitable. We did have a few half chances but they came to nought. Oster came on for Thomsen in a tactical switch but Oster looks like a man lacking in confidence and couldn't really do anything and there were no further options on the bench to try.

Looking beyond the pain of FA Cup exit there was still much to be impressed with in this Everton performance. True we hardly played the beautiful game but despite the rather "cobbled" together nature of the side we were resilient, organised, disciplined and hard working. We also passed the ball better than of late, particularly out of defence. I still believe that slowly but surely we are getting back on the right track.

• Myhre 7 Another confident, competent display. Not much he could do about the goal.
• Thomas 6 I thought that he was better defensively today but that his crossing was poorer.
• Ball 6 Not as good as he had been in midfield at Bolton. His qualities are still there to be seen but I thought that at times he gave Gillespie a little too much respect and a little too much space.
• Dunne 6 A competent display again.
• Tiler 7 Continues his run of excellent displays. Barely put a foot wrong.
• Thomsen 7 A bit of a revelation at sweeper. A couple of gaffes but a largely assured and confident display.
• Farrelly 6 Not as good as against Bolton but still OK. Needs to be a bit more selective with his shooting attempts but at least he shows willing to have a go.
• Grant 6 Clearly not match fit but his passing ability still shines through. Should be better for this 90 minute run out.
• Barmby 7 Worked really, really hard and did some good stuff but never really got a clear sight of goal. My man of the match.
• Ferguson 7 Another excellent display of centre forward play. Held the ball up well and used it intelligently. The service wasn't there for him like it was against Bolton.
• Cadamarteri 7 Caused Newcastle all sorts of problems and won us loads of corners but didn't actually threaten the goal too much.
• Oster 6 Not on long and clearly struggling for confidence.

Team 6 Although it's coming together we still aren't playing particularly well, especially in the final third of the field which is weird as I thought our front three all played quite well. Unfortunately the front three didn't link particularly well, just 3 individuals rather than a team. However lets give credit to what was a patched up, inexperienced side, they put in a competent performance and didn't deserve to lose.

Rush now has 43 goals in the competition, a record, and rarely can one have been more welcome. Not only did it provide a the only real moment of excitment in a desperately disappointing contest, but it also offered some relief to Kenny Dalglish, his manager.

Newcastle's season has been in danger of falling apart over the past two months, but with Alan Shearer planning a return for the fourth-round tie against Stevenage Borough, the Cup suddenly looks an inviting proposition.

Dalglish tried hard not to convey such an impression afterwards, but Rush's goal and the trip to Stevenage could not fail to elicit a broad smile. "I thought fairytales never come true, but obviously they do," he said.

"It was a great result and a good reward for Ian Rush. His career may be more behind than ahead of him, but he is still sharp. He looks after himself and his intelligence paid dividends."

It is true that Newcastle appeared to be a team transformed after Rush's introduction for the desperately disappointing Asprilla - Dalglish's pointed verdict being that it was too cold for the Colombian. Rush's legs may have seized up a little, but the brain is as sharp as ever. His distribution was clever and his running even smarter as he teased an Everton defence that had looked solid for an hour.

It was no coincidence that Newcastle's first real chance of the game came within seconds of Rush's introduction in the 53rd minute, as Gillespie got free on the right and came within inches of finding Lee in the penalty area.

The goal came after 68 minutes and it had "Made in Liverpool" stamped all over it.

Gillespie, quite splendidly, met a cross-field ball from Beresford with a first-time right-wing cross. It beat the Everton defence and, with a little help from a gathering puddle, held up at the far post sufficently for Barnes, another Liverpool old boy, to loop it back across goal.

Needless to say, Rush - the old predator on his favourite feeding ground - was first to react to bundle the ball over the line. "That's his trademark - I knew he would be on the end of it," Barnes said.

Poor Everton. They have had wretched luck this season and to be sent tumbling out of the FA Cup by Rush, of all people, must be hard to bear. The truth is, though, that they did not help themselves on a miserable winter's afternoon.

Howard Kendall, the manager, had nine men unavailable, but those experienced players still standing, such as Ferguson and Barmby, lacked sufficient commitment to trouble a Newcastle defence that has staggered on the verge of shell-shock all season.

It was Ferguson, the newly-appointed captain, who grabbed a hat-trick a week earlier, who wasted the few opportunities that came Everton's way. The lively but blinkered Cadamarteri fed him with a glorious opportunity to open the scoring on 62 minutes, but the big centre forward miskicked from just eight yards out.

Worse, Ferguson failed to provide sufficient power with his head to two crosses provided by Thomas in the final ten minutes, when he would normally have been expected to score. He also shot at Hislop, in the final minute, when again well placed. Now Rush could tell him a thing or two about finishing at Goodison.

It could need more than the return of Alan Shearer to ensure that Newcastle survive their fourth-round trip to non-League Stevenage. The legacy of Kevin Keegan has seemingly shrunk under the care of Kenny Dalglish, who agreed that his team would not be complacent against unknown opponents next time.

The second half of a match devoid of distinction, individual or collective, was notable only for the spirit with which Everton's depleted ranks strove initially to win and then to save what had always looked a lost cause. Few clubs can carry such a burden of injuries.

Danny Cadamarteri worked beaverishly against the odds and his own lack of inches up front, and although Duncan Ferguson's head was the dominant instrument of the last half hour, he never came close to repeating last week's damage against Bolton in the Premiership.

Rain continued to lash the North West all morning and on into the afternoon, and there was standing water in some areas of Goodison's grassy pitch, though Martin Bodenham, the referee, never had doubt about the match being played. Merseyside's habitual response to physical adversity was reflected beforehand by the ice-cream vendor, who could hardly see through his windscreen, vainly ringing his bell down the deserted terraced streets that surround the stadium.

Howard Kendall, who is doing his best to salvage the club which he has previously distinguished as player and then manager, said: "It was a game of few opportunities. I was disappointed with the goal, and the manner of it, but in the circumstances I could not have asked more from my players."

There was much talk afterwards of the re-establishment of the former Anfield partnership between Barnes and, when he replaced Faustino Asprilla after 52 minutes, Rush. The reality was that Barnes had hitherto mostly been obscure, until the moment that he astutely read Keith Gillespie's diagonal crossfield pass that threaded past the whole Everton defence.

An advertisement for an energy-giving soft drink, involving Barnes, talks of the "hell" of the 90-minute game. Yesterday, the hell was primarily experienced by the spectators.

It seemed, on the incident in question, that the ball would run dead, yet it slowed fractionally in the mud, allowing Barnes to hook it at full stretch back into the goalmouth from just beyond the post. Rush, living up to his name, arrived in time to slide feet first into the back of the net in company with the ball.

Subsequently, Barnes limped off, suffering a groin strain, as had Asprilla. They must be seriously doubtful for Wednesday's League Cup appointment with Liverpool.

Kendall was justified in his wish for a more even contest in terms of player availability. Ferguson was the sole survivor of the team which won the Cup three seasons ago, while there were only two players wearing start-of-season single-figure shirt numbers. In the absence of Andy Hinchcliffe and others, Everton's makeshift central defensive trio, in a three-four-three formation, of Richard Dunne, Claus Thomsen and Carl Tiler, had been selected between them only 10 times previously this season. Every phase of the game reflected the inexperience on hand.

Yet also revealed was the poverty of technique that abounds throughout the game today, never mind that even reserve players are being paid in Lottery figures. Few players are truly masters of the ball, even when not under physical pressure, and because of the speed at which the game is played, the majority of them know only how to drive the ball: a la Stuart Pearce.

To take a specific illustration, which I discussed with Duncan McKenzie, that former ball artist, at half-time. Considering that Ferguson's head is Everton's prime striking force, they should exploit this to the maximum. Yet of four corners in the first half, not one succeeded in clearing the first Newcastle defender on the near post. For this level of performance, Sky Television is paying millions.

The early threats mostly came from Asprilla, one man who was equal to the conditions, extending Everton's rearguard and infuriating the home crowd. Tony Grant was booked for a particularly wild tackle on the Colombian, following a gross error by Thomsen, and some minutes later the lenient Bodenham, who later was to take seven names, saw nothing wrong when Asprilla was blatantly run off the ball by Tiler just outside the penalty area.

At the other end Cadamarteri and Nick Barmby were running plenty but achieving little. With Asprilla's departure early in the second half, Newcastle's edge on the match declined, Everton began to prosper. Sadly for them all their energies were punctured by Rush's moment of opportunism. When Cadamarteri rounded the defence two minutes from time to pull the ball back into the path of Ferguson, Everton's captain was smothered by Hislop.

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR        -     FULHAM 

CHELSEA                 3-5    MANCHESTER UNITED         34,792
Le Saux (78)                   Beckham (23, 28)
Vialli (83, 88)                Cole (45, 65)
                               Sheringham (74)

EVERTON                 0-1    NEWCASTLE UNITED          --,---
                               Rush (67)

HEREFORD UNITED         P-P    TRANMERE ROVERS           --,---

WIMBLEDON               0-0    WREXHAM                   --,---

Full-time scores for Sunday, January 4 1998

Full-time scores for Saturday, January 3 1998
ARSENAL                 0-0    PORT VALE                 37,471

BARNSLEY                1-0    BOLTON WANDERERS          15,042
Barnard (26)

BLACKBURN ROVERS        4-2    WIGAN ATHLETIC            22,402
McGibbon (og 20)               Lee (62)
Gallacher (37, 60)             Lowe (68)
Sherwood (48)

AFC BOURNEMOUTH         P-P    HUDDERSFIELD TOWN         --,---

BRISTOL ROVERS          1-1    IPSWICH TOWN               8,610
Beadle (36)                    Stockwell (71)

CARDIFF CITY            1-0    OLDHAM ATHLETIC            6,635
Fowler (18)

CHARLTON ATHLETIC       4-1    NOTTINGHAM FOREST         13,827
Robinson (38)                  Van Hooijdonk (56)
Brown (42)
Leaburn (64)
Mendonca (75)

CHELTENHAM TOWN         P-P    READING                   --,---

CREWE ALEXANDRA         1-2    BIRMINGHAM CITY            4,607
Rivers (31)                    Furlong (pen 22, 55)

CRYSTAL PALACE          2-0    SCUNTHORPE UNITED         11,624
Emblen (45, 87)

DARLINGTON              P-P    WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS   --,---

DERBY COUNTY            2-0    SOUTHAMPTON               27,992
Baiano (pen 68)
Powell (73)

GRIMSBY TOWN            3-0    NORWICH CITY               8,161
McDermott (25)
Woods (48)
Donovan (76)

LEEDS UNITED            4-0    OXFORD UNITED             20,568
Radebe (17)
Hasselbaink (pen 45)
Kewell (71, 72)

LEICESTER CITY          4-0    NORTHAMPTON TOWN          20,608
Marshall (17)
Parker (pen 26)
Savage (53)
Cottee (58)

LIVERPOOL               1-3    COVENTRY CITY             33,888
Redknapp (7)                   Huckerby (45)
                               Dublin (62)
                               Telfer (87)

MANCHESTER CITY         2-0    BRADFORD CITY             23,686
Rosler (35)
Brown (42)

PETERBOROUGH UNITED     P-P    WALSALL                   --,---

PORTSMOUTH              2-2    ASTON VILLA               16,013
Foster (6, 40)                 Staunton (41)
                               Grayson (88)

PRESTON NORTH END       1-2    STOCKPORT COUNTY          12,180
Ashcroft (pen 71)              Angell (30, 48) 

QUEENS PARK RANGERS     2-2    MIDDLESBROUGH             13,379
Spencer (6)                    Hignett (33)
Gallen (75)                    Mustoe (63)

ROTHERHAM UNITED        1-5    SUNDERLAND                11,500
Garner (68)                    Phillips (pen 15, 55, 72, 76)
                               Quinn (85)

SHEFFIELD UNITED        1-1    BURY                      14,009
Fjortoft (65)                  Gray (7)

SWINDON TOWN            1-2    STEVENAGE BOROUGH          9,422
Walters (6)                    Soloman (23)
                               Grazzioli (65)

WATFORD                 1-1    SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY       18,306
Kennedy (65)                   Alexandersson (64)

WEST BROMWICH ALBION    P-P    STOKE CITY                --,---

WEST HAM UNITED         2-1    EMLEY                     18,629
Lampard (4)                    David (56)
Hartson (82)