Everton 3 Oldham Athletic 1:The adventure is over for Oldham. Matt Smith scored one more towering FA Cup header and the League One side again defied their status to unnerve Premier League opposition, but it was not enough to derail Everton at the second attempt. David Moyes's team were too clinical to let a home quarter-final against Wigan Athletic slip from their grasp.
Everton made no mistake thanks to goals from Kevin Mirallas, Leighton Baines and Leon Osman although, like Nottingham Forest and Liverpool before them, it was never straight-forward against the men from Boundary Park.
Everton were made to fight for every ball and every break. A comfortable half-time lead was reward for the home side’s insistence on passing their way in behind the League One defence, but the night would have been transformed had Jose Baxter not had the misfortune to strike a post on his first appearance back at Goodison Park.
Moyes’ team were clearly intent on ending the contest before Smith could have an impact, though Oldham continued to unsettle their opponents in his absence.
Everton, minus the injured Marouane Fellaini, struggled to find any rhythm as Oldham pressed and harried relentlessly but they made an early breakthrough thanks to Mirallas and a costly defensive lapse. Phil Neville, Seamus Coleman and Darron Gibson worked patiently down the right, a route exploited all night by Everton, and when the Republic of Ireland midfielder sent over a sweeping cross Mirallas was on hand to divert an excellent first touch beyond Dean Bouzanis.
The visitors were almost level before the Everton celebrations had ended. Barnard won a long ball on the edge of the area that rebounded off Phil Jagielka into the path of Baxter. The midfielder checked on to his right and curled a delightful shot over Tim Howard but with the equaliser beckoning, the ball struck the post and rebounded out. Oldham’s misfortune increased when Jagielka’s clearance struck Gibson on the arm only for the referee to wave play on.
Rejected penalty claims evened up when the referee failed to penalise James Tarkowski for pulling Nikica Jelavic to the floor as they tussled for another cross from the right by Everton. He eventually pointed to the spot when Jelavic collapsed again under a challenge as Coleman clipped a ball into the box from the byline, though not for that reason. The ball cleared the fallen Croat and struck Connor Brown on an arm. Baines just about found the bottom of the net with a penalty kick that Bouzanis almost saved.
The tie appeared to be beyond Oldham when Osman did deliver a third for Everton with a glancing header from a Pienaar cross that Bouzanis, distracted by Jelavic, allowed to squirm through his grasp. But seconds later Smith brought renewed hope to Oldham with a repeat of his 95th-minute goal in the first meeting between the teams. Brown swung over a corner from the right and the centre-forward easily escaped Neville and Sylvain Distin to head beyond Howard. But it proved the final act of Oldham’s impressive run.
Guardian Service
