Horne unsurprisingly got a very warm welcome from both sets of fans when the announcer went through the team sheets. Its great to see that Huddersfield appreciate him after his spell wasting away at Birmingham (he did go to Birmingham didn't he?).

Just as at the MacAlpine Stadium game last week, Everton started the game with the consistently failed 5-3-2 formation. Unsworth, Tiler and Materazzi; Cleland and Ball – wing backs; Hutchison, Dacourt and the big surprise Oster in the middle; Ferguson and Cadamarteri up front. Even more bizarre was that Unsworth started the game on the right side of the three centre-backs. What was that all about? Thankfully, some time in the first twenty minutes they gave up on this and switched back to the proven 4-4-2 with Unsworth going back over to the left. Not however, before the damage had been done.

First Half

Kick off took place, there were the usual 'get my first touch' passing around that goes on in the opening seconds of a game. Then Horne steamed in on someone, came away with the ball, played a pass right through the middle of our centre backs who stared bemused at it (as did Tommy) and their number nine ran in and couldn't believe his luck as he was able to tuck it away. The large contingent of away supporters went delirious whilst we all got flashbacks to certain other famous exits from the League Cup over recent years.

As the game settled down, and whilst Everton began their laboured formation transformation, it became apparent that John Oster was going to feature heavily in the post-game topics of conversation. His first few contributions where simply woeful. The first three times he got the ball, he lost the ball. Amongst the fans the tone of the evening was set – the whipping boy was going to get it tonight.

Despite this, Oster briefly looked to have played a crucial part in a come-back. His pinpoint lofted free-kick landed on the head of Materazzi who looped the ball into the goal. It was a beautiful set piece which deserved the goal. Someone had drifted off-side according to the linesman and so Marco lost that opportunity to claim his first goal. He protestations to referee Winter saw him earn a yellow card.

Lucky for the let-off, Huddersfield found a guilt-edged chance to put themselves comfortably clear, but Unsworth – who at this point was still on the right of the centre-backs – was on the line to clear after Tommy had been beaten.

Danny then had a crack. Running onto a through-ball at speed, he whipped a tremendous shot into the back of the net only to see us again denied by the offside flag.

The pressure we were putting on meant that a goal simply had to come. When it did it was well worth the wait. Dacourt lined up a free-kick from about five yards outside the area. When he let rip you knew that no-one was going to stop that. I'm sure that will not be the last of those we get to see. What a goal! Everton's Goodison account for the season was finally open.

Before the half was out we were able to complete the turn-over. Another free kick saw a loose ball come out of the box. Oster completely scuffed his shot, which ran tamely to Materazzi, Mazza nearly back-heeled it goalward and he was off the mark – and this time no-one could take it away from him. Chuffed? You'd have thought he scored a Wembley winner given his reaction. Great to see both him and Olly want to do so well for the Blues.

The half-time break saw the introduction of new signing Steve Simonsen to the Goodison crowd. Given Tommy's performance so far, he must be expecting to play on Saturday.

Second Half

The second half probably saw about the same level of Everton dominance, though not extending our lead did mean we could never relax to the extent that such a performance would normally allow. The star players on the night for me were Dacourt and Cadamarteri who both seemed to hold Huddersfield in contempt. In hindrance Everton had more than one player on the night who I thought looked a little dodgy: Tiler and Tommy spring to mind...

Then there was John Oster.

If the lad had got it bad in the first half, this was nothing to what he got in the second. He could do no right. A few of our more tolerant (and classier) fans went out of their way to applaud loudly on the occasions where he did good but even his most ardent supporter could not deny that these occasions were vastly outweighed by the times he lost us possession.

Finally he had a chance to bury his ghost and silence his critics after Danny had torn apart the defence yet again and played a ball back from the by-line. Oster screamed in with an open goal seven yards in front of him and his side-foot ready to place it. I'll leave the reaction when he managed to sky it over to your imagination. Anyone who saw Materazzi's miss in the first leg, let me tell you – this was a worse miss than that. The nightmare for the lad was complete.

No sooner had he missed the chance to send us 3-1  up than things really took a turn for the worrying. The referee pulled over Mazza for a challenge that had happened several minutes before but which had not been punished as play had been allowed to continue. Another Yellow Card. He was off! Nerves time....

Smith decided to inject a touch of experience to the final minutes. Oster was replaced by Collins – a decision which was shamefully met with a standing ovation – worse still later when the Street End started a sarcastic chant of 'Oster give us a wave' as he was on the bench. Barmby was later brought on for the excellent Cadamarteri.

Thank god, we did enough to hold out. The only remaining controversy of the half came when Olly got a mystifying booking. He had a clash with their Number 3 who went down hard. He returned to the player to check if he was OK, he was pushed away by a Huddersfield player, but Olly went over again to offer a hand to help him up. Yellow card.

Overall, the result was good, and at times we showed some style. Those who are on Smith's alleged hit-list for the off, did little to improve their cause on the evening though.

Individuals

• Myhre 6 - Poor kicks, inspired little confidence, looked troubled. We'll see Simonsen on Saturday.
• Cleland 7 - Quiet yet competent.
• Tiler 6 - Looked very dodgy, particularly towards the end of the first half. One clearance for a corner under no pressure whatsoever had to be seen to be believed.
• Materazzi 7 - Must take some fault for their goal, though made up for it with two goals!
• Unsworth 7 - Swapped positions and looked more valuable when he was over on the left. Made an important goal-line clearance and also hit a blistering shot in the first half that would have been one hell of a goal but for a deflection.
• Oster 5 - In his defence, every corner he took found the head of Ferguson, and his free kick for Mazza's disallowed goal was inspired. There is no hiding the truth though that with the open-goal miss Oster died a very public death. I doubt we will see him in the first team again for a very long time.
• Ball 7 - Usual display of technical excellence.
• Hutchison 7 - Terrier like. Hassled their midfield well. Interesting battle with Horne saw honours shared.
• Dacourt 9 - What a strike! Best player in an Everton shirt. Keep it up over the season and we could have a legend in the making.
• Cadamarteri 8 - Made the defence look like fools time and time again. His control was a joy to watch. This lad's confidence is right back sky high. He was providing the kind of service from the by-line that we have supposedly been dreaming of for Ferguson. Big Dunc wasn't there though.
• Ferguson 6 - Ambled through the game. Seemed to fancy himself again in the very forward playmaker role rather than as a striker. Got the ball on his head in promising positions a few times but all shots were very tame. It was embarrassing to hear the Street end persist with the 'Duncan is our Hero' song when he just didn't look bothered with this game at all. Nowhere near the required work rate.
• Collins and Barmby came on but not for long enough to make any real impression.

Rumoured absences for Collins and Barmby were confirmed, though both were on the bench, but Dave Watson's exclusion in favour of Tiler was a little unexpected.

Everton kicked off and passed the ball back into the Gwladys Street end of the ground, having started kicking towards the Park end. Early possession was lost and a ball fell to Stuart for Huddersfield, who buried it coolly in the back of the net. 44 seconds gone and 1 goal down. Memories of past failures in the League Cup competition were all too raw, and there was a definite feeling of deja vu here.

We seemed to settle to the task, though, with a lively Cadamarteri causing early problems for the Huddersfield defence, at one stage rapping the ball into the back of the net, but the linesman's flag had been up for offside well before the ball had reached him. Nevertheless, it looked promising. At the back though we seemed desperate to give away another goal as time and again Tiler and Ball showed a singular lack of understanding, with Tiler's distribution being poor and Ball's positional sense having gone walk about.

After 17 minutes, referee Geoff Winter awarded Everton a free kick, wide on the right. The ball was looped across to find an unmarked Materazzi at the edge of the six yard box, on the far side of the goal. A delightful lobbed(?) header drifted sweetly across the goal, over the keeper and into the net. Marco went wild, celebrating his goal. But the linesman had his flag up again and the goal was disallowed for offside, though just who could possibly have been interferring with play is a mystery me.

At this point Materazzi lost his cool and chased the referee. The resulting interchange resulted in a yellow card for the central defender and his first goal for the club wiped out. Still, despite still being one down we had had the ball in the net twice. Thought's of a question asked of me before the game (Dad, what's the highest number of disallowed goals in a single game?), to which I had replied with a confident "No idea", tripped around in my head. Was I going to be able to answer it correctly before the night was over?

The game went on with us looking increasingly comfortable and in control. Still, though we trailed, until a free kick from about 10 yards outside the box was curled precisely by Olivier Dacourt into the top right hand corner of the Huddersfield goal. Third time lucky? You bet! Dacourt goes off on a celebration-fest and Goodison erupts to the sight of the first home goal of the current season.

The second came from an unlikely source. Defenders are generally accepted as non-strikers but for the second time on the night Materazzi saw his touch nestle in the net. This time it was OK, and he turned to face the goal (having delivered a deft backheel to finish off the chance) and celebrate what really was his first goal for the club.

Half time and we're 2-1 up and yet we hadn't really played all that well, Cadamarteri, Dacourt and to a lesser extent Hutchison apart. In fact I'd go as far as saying that Tiler and Oster were having stinkers and Ferguson and Ball were doing their level best to match their "quality".

The second half was something of a let down, with neither side particularly threatening. It was punctuated by a series of fouls, resulting in bookings for Materazzi (again – which resulted in his dismissal – when will they ever learn to keep their mouths shut? Dissent + 1 bad foul = off) and an increasingly frenetic Dacourt. The Materazzi dismissal happened as the referee had words with the Italian following a clumsy earlier tackle which he had let go because he played advantage.

It nearly backfired on him though as my man-of-the-match Cadamarteri danced to the by-line and delivered a ball across to Ferguson, who missed it allowing the ball to fall nicely about 8 yards out with an open goal to Oster. Redemption beckoned, but it wasn't to be as Oster blasted the ball – high, wide, and definitely not very handsome – into the crowd. Cue the referee's talk to Materazzi and his exit for an early bath.

What followed was a frantic closing period in which Everton threatened to hit the self destruct button and Huddersfield conspired to miss chances. The referee's final whistle was not a moment too soon.

In the end, we probably deserved to win by a wider margin, but why make it easy?

Man-of-the match - Cadamarteri - a dazzling display of control, running and dribbling. Pity it wasn't capped by a goal.

Last match? - Oster - he really did look out of his depth and I felt sorry for him as the crowd got more and more on his back as his touches and flicks failed to come off. Maybe the answer here isn't a move to another club (he's bound to blossom elsewhere) but maybe a prolonged loan spell somewhere where he can get first team football without the pressure he faces at Goodison. The glaring miss can't have done his confidence or his credibility any good at all.

On the day when Everton lavished a record fee on a goalkeeper, Steve Simonsen, it was just Thomas Myhre's luck that his first touch would be to fish the ball out of the net.

Not that the Norwegian was at fault; Huddersfield had been allowed to build down the right and the defence were static as Marcus Stewart converted Paul Dalton's cross for his eighth goal of the season.

The move was initiated by Barry Horne, the former Everton captain, after a characteristic biting tackle and pass. The player who has inherited his mantle in midfield, John Collins, was one of three regulars left on the bench, suggesting that Walter Smith places a rather higher priority on Premiership safety.

Stewart might have doubled Huddersfield's lead within three minutes. As he steadied himself, after again being played in by Horne and Dalton, David Unsworth made a saving tackle. Unsworth also cleared Steve Jenkins' header off the line in the 20th minute, and the reprieve served to stir Everton.

The equaliser arrived in the 29th minute. Following Sam Collins' crude challenge on Don Hutchison, Oliver Dacourt powered the free-kick into the left-hand corner of Nico Vaesen's net from 25 yards. Three minutes before half-time, with Everton's pressure mounting, Materazzi back-heeled their second goal after after Vaesen made a poor fist of punching a corner.

Materazzi was entitled to feel that justice had been done. When Huddersfield were leading he headed a "goal" which was disallowed for offside, presumably against Duncan Ferguson, though the Scot was hardly interferring with play. It was noticeable, however, how the decision, and the angry response it sparked from players and spectators, also helped to galvanise Everton.

Ferguson's aerial strength became a factor, as the quicksilver surges of Danny Cadamarteri began to drag the visitors' defence out of shape. Most of the more incisive attacks stemmed from Dacourt, but Stewart's scuffed shot straight at Myhre was a reminder of the fragility of Everton's advantage.

The tie took a further twist in the 70th minute. No sooner had John Oster skied the ball over the gaping Huddersfield goal from five yards, than the referee went back to the Everton half and dismissed Materazzi for a bad foul on Stewart, leaving Myhre to face an unexpectedly testing finale.

Not even the prospect of reduced prices and, relatively speaking, a cheap night out could tempt a large part of the Merseyside public to Goodison Park. Hardly surprising, for Everton have hardly embraced this particular competition like an old flame of late.

Indeed, since reaching the semi-finals a decade ago they have shown a startling lack of interest in the League Cup, succumbing to York City and Millwall in recent seasons.

Last night the manager Walter Smith could find no place for John Collins, Nick Barmby and David Watson and even those selected showed precious little enthusiasm early on. Everton were soon trailing and at a loss about how to stem the tide that flowed from Huddersfield's midfield.

Only 44 seconds had elapsed when the First Division leaders built substantially upon their 1-1 draw in the first leg, Marcus Stewart steering home splendidly after Everton's defence stood and watched as Steve Jenkins and Paul Dalton combined to create the opening.

Thereafter, jeers ringing in their ears, Everton built a series of dashing raids, all of which crumbled to dust because Danny Cadamarteri refused to concede that football is a team game.

With their mood darkened by a catalogue of curious refereeing decisions, Everton began to draw strength from perceived injustice. And yet the best chances continued to fall to Huddersfield, who would have doubled their advantage in the 20th minute had David Unsworth not been handily placed to clear a Jenkins header off the line.

Everton's persistence was rewarded in the 29th minute, however, when Olivier Dacourt drove home a free-kick, his first goal in English football.

Two minutes before the interval the visitors' defence was breached for a second time when Materazzi, the Italian centre-back, back-heeled into the net after the goalkeeper Nico Vaesen had failed to clear a corner.

First Division leaders Huddersfield arrived on Merseyside with spirits lifted by five successive League victories and possessing the nation's most prolific spearhead of Marcus Stewart and Wayne Allison, who had notched seven goals apiece.

It appeared to be a major setback to their chances when Allison was ruled out with influenza but that did not bother Stewart, who needed only 43 seconds to increase his haul, the striker finishing with considerable comfort after Grant Johnson and Paul Dalton had combined down the Everton right.

Any thoughts that such an early reverse would exacerbate Everton's early-season anxiety were quickly dispelled, however, as the Premiership team dominated a first half rich in incident and entertainment. They were unfortunate not to equalise when Materazzi's looping header from a John Oster free kick was ruled out for offside against Duncan Ferguson, but Walter Smith's men deservedly drew level after 29 minutes.

Again it was a set-piece that Huddersfield's overworked defence failed to deal with, Dacourt seizing upon a free kick awarded for a foul on Don Hutchison by former Everton favourite Barry Horne to drive a spectacular 25-yard rising shot past Nico Vaesen.

The Huddersfield goalkeeper was at fault when Everton took the lead two minutes before half-time from a Hutchison left-wing corner. Vaesen's punch went to Oster just outside the area and his mistimed shot gave Materazzi the chance to compensate for his earlier misfortune with a clever back-heeled diversion.

In the second half, Materazzi, booked for protesting about his disallowed header, fouled the lively Stewart and was dismissed by referee Jeff Winter.

Birmingham City (3) 6 Macclesfield (0) 0  Agg: (9-0)           3,443
Ndlovu 7,19, Askey 37:og, Marsden 57, Rowett 66, M. Johnson 
Bradford City (0) 3 Halifax Town (0) 1  Agg: (5-2)             6,237
Blake 56, Beagrie 77 pen, Pepper 82.  Paterson 54.
Cambridge United (0) 1 Sheffield Wednesday (0) 1  Agg: (2-1)   8,502
Benjamin 74.  Campbell 69:og.
Charlton Athletic (1) 1 Queens Park Rangers (0) 0  Agg: (3-0) 11,726
Youds 18.
Chester City (0) 0 Sunderland (1) 1  Agg: (0-4)                2,738
Johnston 12.
Chesterfield (1) 1 Leicester City (0) 3   Agg: (1-6)           4,565
Howard 28.  Heskey 57, Fenton 87, Wilson 90.
Crewe Alexander (0) 2 Bristol City (0) 0  Agg: (3-1)           3,089
Rivers 64,64.
Grimsby Town (0) 2 Sheffield United (0) 0 aet Agg: (3-2)       4,287
Groves 56, Clare 101.
Hull City (1) 2 Bolton Wanderers (1) 3  Agg: (3-6)             4,226
Brown 42, Rioch 47 pen.  Jensen 26, Johansen 72, Gardner 79.
Luton Town (0) 4 Ipswich Town (1) 2 aet Agg: (5-4)             5,655
Fotiadis 52, Douglas 84, Davis 98, Johnson 119.  Johnson 35, Davis 118:og.
Nottingham Forest (0) 0 Leyton Orient (0) 0  Agg: (5-1)       6,382

Southend (0) 0 Coventry City (3) 4  Agg: (0-5)                6,292
Boateng 6, Dublin 27, Whelan 44, Soltvedt 83.
Tranmere Rovers (1) 3 Blackpool (1) 1   Agg: (4-3)            5,765
Koumas 33, Jones 63, Irons 82:pen.  Malkin 1.
West Ham United(0) 1 Northampton (0) 0  Agg: (1-2)           25,435
Lampard 90.
Wigan (0) 2 Norwich City (2) 3  Agg (2-4)                     3,402
Griffiths 78, Barlow 89.  Bellamy 10, Roberts 37, 66.
Wimbledon (1) 4 Portsmouth (1) 1 aet Agg: (5-3)               3,756
Ardley 26, Ekoku 55, Leaburn 104, Ekoku 112.  Whitbread 19.
Wolverhampton (0) 1 Bournemouth (1) 2  Agg: (2-3)            15,431
Keane 57; Stein 21,60.
Wycombe (1) 1 Middlesbrough (0) 1  Agg: (1-3)                 5,698
Brown 24.  Ricard 53.

Crystal Palace (1) 2 Bury (1) 1  Agg: (2-4)                   3,546
Morrison 8, Zhiyi 77.  Morrison 25:og.
Everton (2) 2 Huddersfield Town (1) 1  Agg: (3-2)            18,718
Dacourt 29, Materazzi 42.  Stewart 1.
Manchester City (0) 0 Derby County(1) 1  Agg: (1-2)          19,622
Wanchope 28.
Reading (0) 1 Barnsley (0) 1  Agg: (1-4)                      6,983
Caskey 90:pen.  Ward 85.
Southampton (0) 0 Fulham (1) 1  Agg: (1-2)                   11,645
Lehmann 10.
Tottenham Hotspur (1) 3 Brentford (1) 2  Agg: (6-4)          22,980
Nielsen 24, Campbell 46, Armstrong 53.  Scott 1, Owusu 74.