Rooney gets stronger with the loss of innocence

Everton 2 Blackburn Rovers 1

David Moyes, the messiah of Everton, says the requirement of everyone's best interests is to "take away the adolescence" of Wayne Rooney. Human-rights activists should not be disturbed.

So far The Kid is showing remarkably few ill effects, especially if you don't believe that in today's world a 17-year-old who cannot put a proper knot in his tie, chew gum and eruditely address a peak national television audience all at the same time is automatically disadvantaged.

Really, it sounds like the sweetheart pubescent deal of all time. You get the rewards of the hardest deal negotiated by a football agent whose shareholders include some of the biggest-name managers in the game – and the downpayment includes the removal of adolescence. Think of how many ageing pros could still benefit from such a deal.

Imagine, too, the boost for somebody of Rooney's tender years. No skin eruptions bursting out of baby fluff – or blushes like the sun coming up over the road to Mandalay whenever a member of the opposite sex comes within 20 feet.

No wonder the half-baked criticism that came when he was handed his absurd award as Britain's Young Sports Personality of the Year – after just two goals unsupported by a single bon mot – was piled on to the bonfire which also consumed Graeme Souness's pretty-pattern makers. Before destroying Blackburn, and reminding us why Moyes was privately seething over the award that meant a shattering of the protective wall he has built around potentially the best young English player since Paul Gascoigne tottered off into oblivion, Rooney was formally welcomed into football's fast lane by opposite number Andy Cole. The Blackburn striker singled out Rooney for a pre-game handshake which confused only those who didn't know that they share an agent.

Any other possible connection was utterly obscured by the stunning facility of the boy from Croxteth. While the sixth minute goalscorer, Cole, quickly separated himself from his former Old Trafford strike partner Dwight Yorke – at first they seemed to be the result of a cloning operation in their black gloves, white shoes and grey irrelevance – he could not begin to match Rooney's influence.

The Kid injected himself brilliantly into the action which brought Everton's equaliser – the shot he whipped tigerishly against the post bouncing with maximum convenience into the path of Lee Carsley – before scoring one of those goals he is well on the way to making his trademark. It was the product of startling vision and wonderful poise. Rooney comes from a boxing family and he punches in his talent with the force of a perfectly balanced heavyweight. Most arresting of all, as Moyes keeps reminding us when he is asked to nominate the phenomenon's greatest attribute, is the working of a sustained football intelligence. "It is remarkable how quickly he sees things," says the Everton manager. "It is a quality you can't manufacture. A player either has it or doesn't. It means that he is more mature on the pitch than he is off it." That, adds Moyes, is inevitable.

What is not inevitable is that an extraordinarily gifted young footballer should so relentlessly exhibit the single most dramatic gift of high talent . . . an ability to shape the course of any match in which he plays.

That capacity was plainly waning before Moyes withdrew him at the end of regular time. He was selected from the start because of concern that too much riding of the bench might be blurring the competitive edge which has been such a huge factor in Everton's rise into the top tier of the Premiership. His clocking-off time was called only after Rooney had delivered three second-half passes which might easily have put the game way out of Blackburn's reach.

However dominant Blackburn became in midfield – and the running and touch of Damien Duff, Tugay and David Thompson at times gave them a huge advantage – they were never able to dismiss the idea that Rooney might again come hurtling out of the woodwork and change everything.

Souness was particularly aggrieved by the decision of the referee, Graham Barber, to hand a second yellow card to Lucas Neill. He said that he feared the worst when he saw Barber's name before the kick-off, the official having sent off the same player at Middlesbrough in a cup-tie last season before admitting to an error. But the manager was candid enough about the main reasons for his team's defeat. One was insipid finishing. The other was flimsy defence. In between, there was much to give him heart, he said. The team continued to play for him with much style and plenty of creativity or steel. More critically, they did not have Wayne Rooney.

Assuming the pimple-proofing works, even the strongest teams will soon be moaning about that last deficiency.

Goals: Cole (6) 0-1; Carsley (12) 1-1; Rooney (25) 2-1.

Everton (4-4-2): Wright 6; Hibbert 5 (Pistone, 89), Yobo 4, Stubbs 5, Unsworth 4; Carsley 5, Lie Tie 4 (Weir 5, 62), Gravesen 5, Naysmith 4; Rooney 9 (Radzinski, 90), Campbell 6. Substitutes not used: Simonsen (gk), Gemmill.

Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2): Friedel 5; Neill 4, Taylor 4, Short 4, McEveley 4 (Gillespie 5, h-t); Thompson 8, Flitcroft 6 (Johansson, 76), Tugay 7, Duff 6; Cole 7, Yorke 4. Substitutes not used: Kelly (gk), Ostenstad, Danns.

Referee: G Barber (Tring) 4.

Bookings: Everton: L Hibbert. Blackburn: Neill, Gillespie.

Sent off: Gillespie.

Man of the match: Rooney.

Attendance: 36,578.