Milwall - 1 Everton - 1: With 11 minutes to go David Moyes must have been wondering how to explain away the fact that his team had been eliminated from all four of this season's cup competitions at the first time of asking only for Leon Osman, his third and final substitute, to hit a face-saving equaliser five minutes after coming on.
"I was worried," admitted the Everton manager, whose defeats in a Champions League qualifier as well as the Uefa and League Cups had created a sense of foreboding for a team that had not retrieved a deficit all season and who had lost eight successive games in London."
"We threatened numerous times without Millwall really causing us problems, we were 1-0 down and I was wondering where the goal was going to come from."
Osman replaced Phil Neville and five minutes later provided peace of mind for the manager with a close-range header after his shot came back to him off Andy Marshall and soon after the substitute went close to winning the game only to see his deft 20-yard lob touched over by the goalkeeper.
Marshall, returning from a knee problem which had sidelined him since November, is out of contract in the summer but, if the caretaker Dave Tuttle gets the manager's job full time - and after eight points out of 12 and this result, the indications are he will - he owes his goalkeeper a night out, although he would prefer a new deal. "I'm open to offers and my phone's on," Marshall said.
Tuttle did hand a first professional contract to Marvin Williams on the morning of the game and gave the 18-year-old a first start at 3pm. Both decisions were quickly justified when the forward chased a neat through-ball from Ben May and got there before Matteo Ferrari and Richard Wright to guide it into the net.
May had seen an earlier header cleared off the line by Tony Hibbert and Wright did well to save from the same player after David Weir's foul on Williams produced only a booking, but with Everton continuing to create chances and flap at them, another cup defeat seemed likely.
Their second-rate forward pairing of Marcus Bent, one goal this season and booed by the fans after failing to jump for a cross just before he was replaced, and James McFadden - five goals in 77 appearances for the club - had first-half efforts saved by Marshall, and the goalkeeper also touched over a looping header from Tim Cahill.
Nuno Valente was denied a penalty in the second half when he was hauled back in the area and Kevin Kilbane, Duncan Ferguson and James Beattie also saw their efforts well saved. But after Osman's intervention there was an injury-time chance for Kilbane, who missed wildly when he could have earned everybody a night off on Wednesday week.
"We'll go into it confident but it's going to be a tougher game than this," Marshall said.
Guardian Service
