ENGLISH FA CUP FIFTH ROUND Everton 0 Reading 1: THE READING fans were quick to denigrate this part of Merseyside but perhaps they should relocate. Last year it was Liverpool in the third round at Anfield, and last night they humiliated Everton in the FA Cup to secure a deserved place in the quarter-finals against either Manchester City or Aston Villa. Neither Premier League scalp amounted to a fluke.
Brian McDermott’s side were the more composed and threatening throughout the match. David Moyes’s side undid all the perseverance that took them past Chelsea in the previous round with a pitiful display that is likely to have lasting repercussions for many at Goodison Park.
A season that had promised so much for Everton rested on this one tie and they could not hold off opponents lying 10th in the Championship. Their sorry campaign has ended with a pitiful exit and a chorus of condemnation.
The Everton manager lost Tim Cahill and Marouane Fellaini to injury, the latter for the rest of the season. An added loss was Jermaine Beckford, scorer of both goals in the win over Sunderland on Saturday but who, while the two sides were shaking hands prior to the contest, was instead disappearing down the tunnel suited and sheepish.
Beckford was due to start but was dropped to the substitutes’ bench having been caught up in a traffic jam by the closure of the M62. Many Everton players had to travel in the same direction as the former Leeds United striker but only Beckford was late. Good luck explaining that one to Moyes.
While Beckford was getting changed, his team-mates opened in a casual manner. Moyes had predicted the inconsistency that has undermined Everton’s season was beginning to evaporate, but a first-half display that prompted a double substitution at the interval told otherwise. The home side created the first chances but it was Reading who carried the greater threat on the counterattack and should have led by more than Matt Mills’s 26th-minute strike.
Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, one of many Everton midfielders to endure a woeful night, chipped Leon Osman into space inside the visitors’ area and though Seamus Coleman met his cross with a header, it beat goalkeeper Alex McCarthy, but bounced over the crossbar.
Reading were stronger in the tackle than Everton and were also superior on the flanks through Jimmy Kebe and Jobi McAnuff. They took the lead with their first attack after Mikele Leigertwood’s shot was deflected wide by Phil Jagielka and presented Ian Harte with the chance to demonstrate that time has not diminished his abilities with a dead ball. Mills won the former Leeds defender’s corner in the air and, when Osman sliced a weak clearance back into his path, the Reading centre-half controlled and fired low beyond Tim Howard.
Reading should have doubled their lead seconds later when Sylvain Distin miscontrolled into the path of Kebe. The right-winger was clean through on goal but shot too close to Howard who saved with his legs. An hour of the game remained yet Everton became desperate. Bilyaletdinov and Coleman, who was nursing an injury before the game, were hauled off at the break as Moyes went for broke by introducing strikers Beckford and Victor Anichebe alongside Louis Saha.
Reading responded by taking the game to Everton again, and Harte drove a 30-yard free-kick towards the top corner only to miss by inches. Jay Tabb thought he had secured the underdogs’ passage into the quarter-finals following good play by Shane Long and Noel Hunt but his shot was deflected wide off Phil Neville.
Guardian Service
EVERTON: Howard, Neville (Baxter 88), Jagielka, Distin, Baines, Coleman (Anichebe 46), Rodwell, Arteta, Bilyaletdinov (Beckford 46), Osman, Saha. Subs not used: Mucha, Hibbert, Heitinga, Duffy. Booked: Rodwell, Neville, Baines.
READING: McCarthy, Gunnarsson, Mills, Khizanishvili, Harte, Kebe, Tabb, Leigertwood, McAnuff (Robson-Kanu 79), Long, Hunt (Church 86). Subs not used: Andersen, Karacan, Antonio, Howard, Armstrong. Booked: Khizanishvili, Leigertwood.
Referee: Andre Marriner(W Midlands).
