Leeds Utd - 0 Everton - 1 Wayne Rooney's propulsion towards celebrity status will continue its breakneck progress after a wondrous goal that brought Everton a victory at Elland Road that shook Leeds United's season to the core.

Four home defeats in six Premiership matches adds up to a troubled return to Premiership management for Terry Venables, but even an Elland Road crowd in increasingly churlish voice could not be blind to the quality of Rooney's latest bid for stardom.

First, there was a winning goal against Arsenal, a goal so potent that Arsenal went from supposed invincibility to imagined crisis within a week. Yesterday, there was another magical rise from the substitute's bench, with only 16 minutes remaining.

Two touches - and six minutes - later, he was engulfed by dancing Everton supporters in front of Leeds' West Stand, unable to believe they had won on this ground for the first time in 51 years.

There was little sense of danger when Rooney collected Tony Hibbert's pass, with his back to goal, 30 yards out. But he turned past Eirik Bakke with embarrassing ease, sped wide of Lucas Radebe on the edge of the area and dragged a right-footer through Radebe's legs to beat Paul Robinson at his far post.

David Moyes, Everton's impressive young manager, will resist the renewed clamour for Rooney to start a game, and will leave him on the bench. "A lot of young players get overused," he said, correctly. He might have said the same about adjectives.

Venables was warm in his praise of a goal that leaves Leeds still lost in an uneasy transition. "Rooney is a terrific young player," he said. "He is not a good prospect, he is a good player already. Obviously, people will look at the facts, and our position in the table, but I do not think we are a million miles away from improving."

Leeds showed fleeting signs of creativity but Everton brimmed with confidence and Robinson was much the harder worked goalkeeper. Leeds' best chance fell to Nick Barmby, who was presented with a one-on-one against Richard Wright shortly before half-time but he made such a mess of it that he fell over the goalkeeper and was booked for diving.

So the anti-Venables tendency at Elland Road grows stronger. Last week it identified itself in chants for the previous manager David O'Leary, who took Leeds to the Champions League semi-final and then entirely lost the plot.

Yesterday, sporadic chants broke out in support of David Batty, who had bleated in a Sunday newspaper that Venables had informed him early in the season he had no future at the club. Batty, who has always fancied himself as the guv'nor of Elland Road much in the style of Paul Ince when he was at Old Trafford, has 18 months left on his contract and will not go easily.

Batty was being phased out under David O'Leary, so for Venables to suggest he found a new club was a natural progression for an ageing player. But as Rooney evaded Bakke with such ease, one had to speculate that Batty - or for that matter Olivier Dacourt - would at least have made the experience a more bruising one.

Rooney's life has been transformed in little more than a fortnight and Moyes, determined to supervise the long-term development of a rare talent, has cause to fear the media's slavering short-termism.

When pressed about outstanding forward play, he rattled on about Tomasz Radzinski, who forced two fine saves early in the second half from Paul Robinson.

Robinson also saved well before half-time from efforts by Li Tie and Lee Carsley. What impresses about Robinson is his solidity, which is more than can be said lately for his side.

Anyone who has been lulled by Test cricket into the belief that all Australians have an in-built work ethic must gaze upon Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell in confusion.

Kewell, lambasted by the former Leeds midfielder John Giles as a professional disgrace, showed much more urgency yesterday; it has been a long time coming.

Viduka's immobility is now reminiscent of Ray Hankin, the Leeds striker of the late 70s, although it has to be said, Hankin was 10 times as nasty.

Alan Smith, with his white hair, white boots and black moods was indefatigable, until he took a knock on the ankle, while Viduka lounged like Henry VIII on a gilded throne. The most he could manage was to thud a free header from Lee Bowyer's corner straight at Wright and he was eventually substituted.

But it was an Everton substitution that took all the attention.

LEEDS UNITED: Robinson, Mills, Woodgate, Radebe, Lucic (Harte 45), Bowyer, Bakke, Barmby, Kewell, Viduka (Bridges 68), Smith (McMaster 81). Subs Not Used: Martyn, Kelly. Booked: Barmby, Lucic, Bowyer.

EVERTON: Wright, Hibbert, Stubbs, Yobo, Unsworth, Carsley, Linderoth, Tie Li (Naysmith 82), Pembridge, Campbell, Radzinski (Rooney 75). Subs Not Used: Gerrard, Watson, Weir. Booked: Unsworth, Campbell, Wright. Goal: Rooney 80.

Referee: N Barry (Lincolnshire)