Charlton Athletic 2 - Everton 2: Everton's Wayne Rooney and Charlton's Scott Parker fought for the attentions of the England manager in the stands last night. It would take a hard heart to ignore their claims but the Swede might yet.
Sven-Goran Eriksson was here to consider Rooney's fitness ahead of the Euro 2004 qualifiers against Macedonia and Liechtenstein. His stunning second-half goal, emphatically stated Rooney's case, while Parker pulled the strings for the hosts.
While fielding the same team that thrashed Wolves at the weekend, the Charlton manager Alan Curbishley was unable to name Paolo Di Canio on the bench due to an injury in training.
Ideally Moyes would choose to rest Rooney, but the fact he was playing was a bonus for the watching Eriksson.
The Swede's eyes, however, will have been drawn to Parker, the rising English star of the Charlton midfield. Slick in possession and quick across the ground, Charlton owed their initial lead to Parker's contribution. Bursting into the box from 40 yards out Parker was taken down by David Unsworth for a booking and penalty that was duly despatched by Jason Euell.
Moyes is keen to find a young British midfielder to give his midfield creative inspiration and, following the collapse of his approach for Fulham's Sean Davis, he will surely wish he had the funds to persuade Curbishley to part with the influential Parker.
That Everton need a midfielder is unquestionable. Fielding four centre-halves across the defence, Moyes pushed up two nominal full-backs, Steve Watson and Gary Naysmith, to patrol the wings. Watson took little time in getting Everton back on level terms, shooting past Dean Kiely after a delightful ball from Mark Pembridge.
Euell wasted little time in putting Charlton's noses back in front just after the interval and once again it was from an Everton blunder rather than Charlton quality. The referee Steve Dunn awarded the Addicks their second penalty of the night after Joseph Yobo's clumsy lunge clipped Hreidarsson's heels. Euell coolly sent the ball crashing home.
Shortly afterwards, both Eriksson and Moyes's brows creased after Rooney tumbled, clutching the right ankle that had enforced his recent absence from the first team. An entire stadium hushed in shared concern, but Englishmen's fears appeared unfounded as the striker gingerly rose to his feet and he was soon causing problems to the Charlton defence, prodding a delightfully weighted ball across to the onrushing Gary Naysmith, who fired a first-time shot just wide of Kiely's right-hand post.
It was a mere precursor to a suitably jaw-dropping goal from the 17-year-old who slammed his shot into the roof of the net. If Kiely had got to it he would merely have joined the ball behind the goal-line.
CHARLTON: Kiely, Young, Fortune, Fish, Hreidarsson, Kishishev (Stuart 77), Holland, Parker, Jensen, Euell, Bartlett (Cole 76). Subs Not Used: Royce, Powell, Johansson. Booked: Jensen. Goals: Euell 25 pen, 49 pen.
EVERTON: Wright, Pistone, Stubbs, Yobo, Unsworth, Watson, Pembridge, Linderoth, Naysmith, Radzinski, Rooney. Subs Not Used: Simonsen, Weir, Li Tie, Hibbert, Chadwick. Booked: Unsworth. Goals: Watson 26, Rooney 72.
Referee: S Dunn (Gloucestershire).
