Martin Olsson's first goal in English football was enough for Blackburn to repeat their opening day win over Everton.
Poor Everton crash out to much-changed Blackburn
Martin Olsson's first goal in English football was enough for Blackburn to repeat their opening day win over Everton and take the 2002 winners into the fourth round of the Carling Cup with a 1-0 victory.
The Swedish Under-21 international made the most of his first game of the season following a shoulder injury to score the only goal after ten minutes at Ewood Park.
Everton reached the semi-finals of the competition last season but rarely looked like prolonging their interest this time around with a poor performance which continued their up and down start to the campaign.
And Blackburn could have won more comfortably as Rovers boss Paul Ince, a League Cup winner as a player with Manchester United, celebrated a second home win in the space of five days.
With Everton facing a Merseyside derby against Liverpool on Saturday, manager David Moyes left out Tim Cahill, Mikel Arteta and top scorer Yakubu from his starting line-up but did hand a full debut to recent signing Louis Saha.
The former Manchester United striker headed wide from a corner midway through the first half but Everton's only other chance in the opening 45 minutes fell to Marouane Fellaini, who also headed wide from a Jack Rodwell cross.
And Moyes wasted no time in bringing both Cahill and Yakubu off the bench at the start of the second half as he looked to try and get back into a tie which Rovers had dominated early on.
Ince made seven changes to the side that beat Fulham on Saturday, including another chance for exciting Chilean winger Carlos Villanueva and a first start for former Liverpool forward Robbie Fowler.
And Fowler played a large part in the winning goal, playing a neat one-two with Olsson, who advanced from left-back to calmly beat Tim Howard with a low shot.
Threat
Blackburn carried a constant threat down the left flank through Keith Treacy, who twice almost laid on a second goal for Matt Derbyshire, who was denied by the intervention of Howard.
Derbyshire was given another opportunity to impress after coming off the bench to score Blackburn's winner against Fulham on Saturday and the England Under-21 international should have wrapped it up for Rovers with an hour gone.
A mistake by Phil Jagielka allowed Derbyshire a clear run on the Everton goal but as Howard came out the striker clipped his effort wide of the target.
Blackburn had been without goalkeeper Paul Robinson since the 13th minute after the England international went off injured but Everton struggled to test replacement Jason Brown as they sought in vain for an equaliser.
Cahill was given a rare sight of goal 20 minutes from time but from Joleon Lescott's pull-back, the substitute was unable to keep his header down and Everton's last chance of forcing extra-time was gone.
| Blackburn Rovers |
Team Statistics |
Everton |
| 1 |
Goals |
0 |
| 1 |
1st Half Goals |
0 |
| 2 |
Shots on Target |
3 |
| 4 |
Shots off Target |
7 |
| 1 |
Blocked Shots |
1 |
| 2 |
Corners |
6 |
| 10 |
Fouls |
16 |
| 2 |
Offsides |
2 |
| 2 |
Yellow Cards |
2 |
| 0 |
Red Cards |
0 |
| 56.1 |
Possession |
43.9 |
|
