FA Premiership: Cruelly, though perhaps predictably, the Everton revival endured a bitter twist at the last. While Manchester United bounced gleefully amid the tickertape, Wayne Rooney trudged off with an ice pack on his knee and a bandage required for a battered ego.
Nothing should detract from what has still been a startling campaign for Everton, but this was no way for their season of resurgence to end. Having enjoyed and deserved a top-six place since November, David Moyes' side wake today in seventh, pipped for a UEFA Cup place by Blackburn Rovers.
It is a sign of the progress made that, while the home players' circuit of the arena sparked rapturous applause, all that resounded in those on the pitch was a sense of bitter disappointment.
"There are winners and losers," sighed Moyes, dejected in defeat. "This has been a good season for Everton but there's no consoling us. We just didn't have enough to get over the finishing line."
For Rooney in particular this was a perverse finale. United were at their swashbuckling best here, with only Richard Wright preventing the cricket score their slick passing always threatened, but even so the teenager still emerged from the Everton muddle to spurn a trio of tantalising opportunities. To compound that with medial ligament damage was insanely cruel.
All his misses came once the injury had been sustained, Laurent Blanc turned humiliatingly on the halfway line only to trip the youngster as he threatened to burn away into space. The 17-year-old picked himself up to connect with Gary Naysmith's low centre but poked his shot mystifyingly wide. So inconceivable was the miss that the scoreboard spent the next 10 seconds flashing up "Goal" while Rooney buried his head in Roy Carroll's towel.
That set the tone. Alan Stubbs' punt was gathered by the striker, turning away from Rio Ferdinand and played onside by the ponderous Blanc, only for Rooney to blaze his volley wide.
In the end, having scored first, Everton succumbed to controversy. Ruud van Nistelrooy lost his footing and crumpled under a vague challenge from Stubbs 11 minutes from time and Mike Riley awarded the seventh penalty he has given United this season.
Van Nistelrooy slid in the winner to secure the Golden Boot and score for a club record 10th league game in succession. "
He amazed us all with what he achieved last year," said Alex Ferguson, ecstatic at his striker's 44th goal of the season. "He's been exceptional."
For the most part the new champions were irrepressible. Parity was only ever one precise finish away and arrived just before the interval, David Beckham dipping a vicious free-kick across Wright and into the far corner.
EVERTON: Wright, Hibbert, Yobo, Stubbs, Unsworth, Watson, Carsley, Gravesen (Chadwick 75), Naysmith (Pistone 83), Rooney, Campbell (Ferguson 40). Subs Not Used: Simonsen, Gemmill. Booked: Gravesen, Hibbert, Rooney, Stubbs, Ferguson. Goals: Campbell 8.
MAN UTD: Carroll, Brown (Phil Neville 40), Ferdinand, Silvestre, O'Shea (Blanc 45), Beckham, Keane, Scholes, Giggs, van Nistelrooy, Solskjaer (Fortune 78). Subs Not Used: Veron, Butt. Booked: Ferdinand, Blanc, Phil Neville. Goals: Beckham 43, van Nistelrooy 79 pen.
Referee: M Riley.
Guardian Service
