Football: Dahlin gets the elbow in stale affair

Everton 0

Blackburn Rovers 0

Attendance: 36,404

DAVID DUNN should be thankful for small mercies. His Premiership bow may have been restricted to just 10 minutes, as a substituted second- half substitute following the dismissal of Martin Dahlin, but at least his reputation survived intact.

Precious few other participants in a truly awful contest can stake a similar claim. While Everton could gather crumbs of comfort from a handful of chances and Blackburn can point to the valid excuse of the absence of three quality strikers, the performance and outcome did nothing to repair the inconsistency and lack of confidence dogging both sides' respective starts to the season.

Hearts were in Blackburn mouths at the end of each half. First Duncan Ferguson struck the post with a straight and true shot after latching on to Nicky Barmby's knock-down. It was one of the few occasions the Scottish striker had escaped the attentions of the otherwise excellent Swiss defender Stephane Henchoz, who suffered stomach cramps at half-time from suspected food poisoning.

A deflected David Unsworth header and a snatched lob by Danny Cadamarteri at the death were honestly evaluated as mere "huffs and puffs" by Everton manager Walter Smith. "We are struggling to get the breakthroughs in terms of goals. That would have lifted the game a little bit. It is up to us to step up our efforts in that department. When we have got an early goal we have gone on to create a few chances."

His counterpart, Roy Hodgson, had to deploy winger Damien Duff, himself short of match practice, with Dahlin. He is hopeful that that the injured Chris Sutton and Kevin Gallacher will be back for their second-leg Uefa Cup trip to Lyon on Tuesday. Kevin Davies, hospitalised with a throat abscess, is a long-term absentee.

Hodgson's problems were compounded when Dahlin was dismissed for elbowing Marco Materazzi in an aerial challenge. Words were exchanged with the linesman, who had reported a spitting incident.

Duff had already been substituted for Dunn, who in turn was sacrificed as Blackburn attempted to protect the status quo. "It was a purely tactical move. David Dunn is a bright player and a bright prospect and I was looking forward to giving him 20 minutes but you couldn't have expected him to make an impact on the Everton defence alone. You have got to have something happen to you in your debut to make you remember it," smiled Hodgson. The Blackburn manager had little else to laugh about.

"The ball was either in the air or in the stand. But I have to be proud of my team. We gave a gritty, hard-working, determined performance. I do not think the performance merited seven bookings and a sending-off. At the moment we are on the wrong side of the referees. Maybe, in the fullness of time, that will change. With a view to matches in three or four weeks' time, this match was a disaster," observed Hodgson, topping up the suspensions.

Both sides operated a strict 4-4-2 formation without any noticeable width. Even Blackburn's Jason Wilcox, the only recognised winger, was sucked into a midfield melee that was responsible for four yellow cards in the first 23 minutes.

With Everton using four recognised central defenders, Blackburn's predictable attacks were comfortably smothered. The home side, marginally more threatening after the introduction of Cadamarteri, were similarly blinkered in their use of the central channel and Ferguson as a focus.