Blackburn Rovers ... 0 Everton ... 1 At the end Joseph Yobo ripped off his shirt and flung it gleefully into the delirious Darwen End. If ever one moment could capture the renaissance of a football club, this was it.
It is only 20 months since a disgruntled fan confronted Alex Nyarko - the man to whom Yobo turned for advice before moving to Merseyside - and demanded his jersey, so riled was he by the Ghanaian's spineless display. This morning, Evertonians will be all for their African players getting shirty. "It's becoming something of a ritual," said David Moyes. "He'll have to start buying his own soon." A fifth successive league victory, gleaned by Kevin Campbell's early goal but earned by Yobo's awesome defensive display, maintains Everton's startling presence in fourth place. Not since 1987, en route to their last championship, has Goodison gawped at such a sequence; not since Dave Watson in his prime have they pinched themselves at the sight of such a defensive colossus as one of their own.
"The quality he's shown is what I expected," said Moyes, who signed the 22-year-old on a £1million 12-month deal from Marseille last summer with a view to a permanent £5million deal. "I was concerned about a young African player coming over to a different continent, even if he had played in France, and I thought it might take him time to settle."
Yobo, urged forward to take the applause of the 5,700-strong crowd by Campbell on the final whistle, was simply magnificent late on amid Blackburn's frantic pressure, his strong-arm yet calming presence alongside Alan Stubbs throwing down a barrier which scurrying attackers simply could not breach.
Tomasz Radzinski missed an earlier chance but the Canadian was soon spared his blushes by Campbell who calmly placed his sixth league goal of the season beyond Brad Friedel.
BLACKBURN ROVERS: Friedel, Neill, Short, Johansson, Curtis (Yorke 69), Thompson, Dunn, Tugay, Duff, Cole, Ostenstad. Subs Not Used: Jansen, Grabbi, Robinson, Bjornebye. Booked: Short, Johansson, Ostenstad.
EVERTON: Wright, Hibbert, Yobo, Stubbs, Naysmith (Rooney 81), Carsley, Tie Li (Watson 57), Gravesen, Unsworth, Campbell, Radzinski (Weir 89). Subs Not Used: Pistone, Simonsen. Booked: Tie Li. Goal: Campbell 19.
Referee: G Poll (Hertfordshire).
