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| Manchester City vs. Everton |
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Full Time
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H/T: 0:0 | F/T: 0:1
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CITY 0-1 Everton
Everton match-winner Tim Cahill was bizarrely sent off at Eastlands just seconds after wrecking Manchester City keeper David James' brave attempt at personal redemption with the only goal of the game.
James looked like producing the major talking point of a hard-fought north-west derby by bouncing back from his England horrors with a series of stupendous saves, only to find himself eclipsed by Cahill's red card.
On only his second start following a £2million summer move from Millwall, the Australian midfielder had already been booked when he rose to nod home Tony Hibbert's excellent 58th-minute cross.
As he wheeled away in glee, Cahill briefly raised his shirt over his head before being mobbed by his ecstatic team-mates.
But referee Steve Bennett had already noted the rule infringement and to the stunned disbelief of Cahill and his manager David Moyes, promptly ended the celebrations by producing a second yellow and despatched the player to the dressing rooms.
To his credit, Moyes kept his composure, limiting his response to a couple of gestures and a few words of complaint to fourth official Neale Barry.
But, as he patrolled the touchline, he seethed silently as, at the start of their post-Wayne Rooney era, Everton desperately clung for a victory that maintains their unbeaten away record and ended City's hopes of recording back-to-back Premiership wins for the first time in 18 months.
It was all tough luck on James, who did more than enough with an exceptional first-half performance to capture all the headlines himself.
Few players have been subjected to the kind of intense and personal abuse the keeper has faced over the last seven days.
Kevin Keegan insisted the former Liverpool man would not be affected by being turned into a national joke and if there were any nagging fears about James' mental strength, the City boss would have been delighted to hear the ringing endorsement his goalkeeper received from the home fans as he lined up before kick-off.
What James probably wanted was some early action. In the end he had to wait 11 minutes to make the first of three brilliant first-half stops that not only kept his team on level terms at the interval, but also left a near-capacity crowd wondering just how he came to make such a monumental blunder against Austria in the first place.
Steve Watson was the first man thwarted, by a superb, low one-handed save that denied the Everton midfielder after he had sprung the City offside trap and latched onto Leon Osman's through-ball inside the home box.
James' second save was a better one as he showed fine reactions to palm away Marcus Bent's thunderous close-range header after Lee Carsley had curled a free-kick to the far post.
His third, two minutes from the break, was the best of the lot, though, as Carsley and Cahill combined to set Osman up with a clear opportunity just eight yards out. The midfielder kept his nerve and tried to steer his shot into the corner, but James was equal to it, pushing it away from immediate danger and giving the City defence time to smother the follow-up.
It left Everton lamenting their ill-fortune at the interval, particularly as even on such inspired form, James would have struggled to keep out a Cahill header that was glanced just wide when a firmer effort would almost certainly have found the target.
Not that the visitors had an exclusivity on possession and attacks, far from it. It was just they did more with what they had.
The best City could muster were edge of the area volleys from Trevor Sinclair and Ben Thatcher which both sailed harmlessly over and two darts into the danger zone by Nicolas Anelka, the latter of which would have left Robbie Fowler with an open goal had Tony Hibbert not made a fine blocked tackle.
Referee Bennett ended the first half with a flurry of yellow cards as Joey Barton clashed with Carsley and then felt the force of Cahill's elbow in his face. Alessandro Pistone was also booked within five minutes of the re-start as he ended a dangerous Shaun Wright-Phillips burst by dragging back the England man.
The significance of Cahill's booking did not become clear until he began celebrating his goal. Totally stunned, the Australian spent the last frantic minutes in the tunnel, desperately willing his team to victory.
In the end, they achieved their aim with something to spare as City's increasingly frenzied attacks fizzled out disappointingly in the face of stoic Everton defence.
Keegan: The game's going mad!
Rival bosses David Moyes and Kevin Keegan joined forces to condemn the dismissal of Everton match-winner Tim Cahill at Eastlands this afternoon.
'The game is going mad,' said the City boss.
'Some guy is sitting in an office in Switzerland somewhere making up ridiculous rules like this.
'The guy has just joined a club, has scored an important goal and he wants to enjoy it.
'Pulling a shirt over your head has become something of a ritual now.
'It's not even as if he threw it into the crowd or tied it to the corner flag.
'I feel so sorry for the lad because it's so stupid - but football is like that sometimes.'
Even Bennett admitted he had some sympathy for Cahill but said both sides had been warned about the offence before the game.
'All clubs have received copies of a poster that clearly shows what constitutes an offence and I am in no doubt that the player breached those regulations,' said the referee.
'The player had already received a yellow card, so there was no alternative other than to send him off. The law is there, we are just asked to enforce them.
'There were two instances of this at Euro 2004 and another during the Champions League Final. You would think lessons should have been learned.'
The issue overshadowed the brilliant performance of David James, who delivered the perfect response to the critics who have condemned him so viciously in the wake of his blunder for England in Austria last weekend.
'He answered the critics in the only way he could,' said Keegan of his goalkeeper.
'One mistake doesn't make you a bad goalkeeper. His performance was worth three points but unfortunately none of our outfield players could match it.'
The defeat means City have still not won back-to-back Premiership games in almost 18 months, and already they look set for another season of inconsistency.
Everton, meanwhile, seem to have thrown off their own miserable form of last term and are now looking like the side who almost qualified for Europe two campaigns ago.
With 10 points from four games since the opening-day disaster against Arsenal, the Toffeemen are now looking good in the top six, and Moyes admitted it was the perfect way to begin the post-Wayne Rooney era.
'There was a bounce about the squad when they came back after the summer,' he said.
'We should have done better last season. We accept that we had to improve and that is what we have done.
'There are a lot of people who had us down for relegation this season but it seems we are proving them wrong.'
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