That’s all from me. After a poor first half Everton improved after the introduction of Richarlison, and the second half was a case of when, and then how many. They next play Spurs on Monday and still need to move away from the bottom three. Boreham Wood defended resolutely, helped by a very pedestrian opening 45 minutes from Everton, and even in the second allowed few clear chances. It was a fine end to a fine Cup run, and they now turn their attention to Wrexham on Tuesday, a key game in their push for promotion against a side two points and one place above them in the National League (the Wood have three games in hand). Here’s the match report again. Bye!
Andy Hunter has filed his match report from Goodison Park:
There was no seismic upset at Goodison Park but no FA Cup rout or humiliation either. Boreham Wood, bidding to become only the second non-league club to reach the quarter-finals, made life extremely difficult for Everton before Premier League superiority told.
Salomon Rondón struck twice in the second half to take Frank Lampard’s team into a last eight meeting away at Crystal Palace. They will need to improve significantly on this display to reach the semi-finals at Wembley but the night belonged to Luke Garrard and his accomplished side. The Hertfordshire club defended expertly throughout and underlined why they are firmly in pursuit of promotion to the Football League this season.
Everton have been a class act since drawing the non-league side, Garrard had said, with the Premier League club paying for their visitors’ specially commissioned fifth-round kit, taking care of travel arrangements and sorting their accommodation. The same was true of Everton’s moving anti-war statement prior to kick off too.
Much more here:
It started with kids coming to games with “[insert player’s name] can I have your shirt please” placards. It has now moved to a terrifying new phase.
🏃♂️Young Everton fan gets a shirt from Jonjoe Kenny. pic.twitter.com/FW8GQp28Ti
— Tony Scott (@Tony_Scott11) March 3, 2022
Luke Garrard’s post-match thoughts:
They dominated the ball as you’d expect. You wait for your moment but I thought they managed it superbly. We’ve had just over 500 minutes in the FA Cup without conceding a goal. The finish was immense, the ball, the run, the movement. The boys left everything on the pitch. We worked hard, but we were playing a Premier League outfit. We’ve shown, what this group’s done is fantastic.
So it’s a trip to Selhurst Park for Everton in the quarter-finals, then.
Crystal Palace v Everton
Nottingham Forest or Huddersfield Town v Liverpool
Middlesbrough v Chelsea
Southampton v Manchester City
Final score: Everton 2-0 Boreham Wood
90+4 mins: For this game, and for Boreham Wood’s once-in-a-lifetime (probably) FA Cup adventure, it’s all over.
⏱ 𝐅𝐔𝐋𝐋 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄
— Boreham Wood FC (@BOREHAM_WOODFC) March 3, 2022
It was a valiant effort and a memorable run, but our FA Cup journey comes to an end
🔵 2-0 🪵#WeAreTheWood pic.twitter.com/mMlPluVeDo
90+2 mins: One more save for Ashby-Hammond, from Rondon’s tame header. Everton had one shot on target in the first half, and have had nine in this one.
90+1 mins: There will be three minutes of stoppage time.
90 mins: Richarlison lifts the free kick high and wide.
88 mins: Everton pass the ball around, the recipient of every pass threatening to shoot before deciding to pass again. Eventually Coleman goes down, and they win a free kick. Allan and Keane go off, and Isaace Price and Reece Welch come on. Boreham Wood bring Adrian Clifton and Nile Ranger on for Scott Boden and Tyrone Marsh.
86 mins: Anthony Gordon gets applauded from the field. He runs with the ball very nicely indeed, but too often makes the wrong decision about what to do with it when he stops running. Lewis Dobbin comes on.
GOAL! Everton 2-0 Boreham Wood (Rondon, 84 mins)
And it’s two! Everton take the corner short, Townsend eventually crosses it to the far post where Rondon heads at goal. Ashby-Hammond claws it away, but not before the ball crosses the line!
Updated
83 mins: An excellent sliding tackle from Josh Rees denies Richarlison in the area.
82 mins: Into the closing stages with Everton still only a single goal to the good and thus only one error from humiliation. At no point in this game have Boreham Wood looked remotely like scoring, but you never know.
79 mins: The ball goes to Gordon again. He passes to Kenny this time, but clearly regrets it because when the ball breaks back to him he scoops another rubbish shot over the bar.
77 mins: Another Richarlison shot, and this one hits Stevens and bounces to safety. The Brazilian has his head in his hands afterwards, so he must have thought it was on its way in.
76 mins: Richarlison’s curling, dipping shot from 20 yards is well saved by Ashby-Hammond, diving to his left.
75 mins: Anthony Gordon is basically shooting from any angle, any distance and at any opportunity. His latest effort goes straight at Ashby-Hammond.
73 mins: Connor Smith comes on for Kane Smith, Boreham Wood’s Tony Hibbert superfan.
GOAL! Everton 2-0 Boreham Wood, but it won't count!
71 mins: Everton attack down the left again. Gordon cuts onto his right foot and sends a dipping shot across goal that hits Connor Stevens in the shoulder, rebounds into Richarlison’s head, bounces off that down into his arm, and off that into the net. That is the least intentional handball you could possibly see.
69 mins: Mark Ricketts comes off for the Wood, and James Comley comes on.
68 mins: Gordon runs towards the area from the left while Doucoure looks up in the centre circle and assesses his options. The Frenchman picks the easiest one, to Kenny on the left, and Gordon waves his arms in frustration as he pulls up.
66 mins: Chance! Gordon plays a one-two with Richarlison and runs into the left of the area, but his shot hits Ashby-Hammond.
64 mins: Everton want a second. Gordon’s low cross provokes some panic, but Boreham Wood eventually get it clear.
61 mins: A flood of relief in Everton’s ranks. That was getting a bit embarrassing.
Thank heavens for that.
— Peter Reid 💙 (@reid6peter) March 3, 2022
59 mins: Mykolenko sends in a corner, from which Michael Keane heads over. Mykolenko goes down after sending the ball in, and is promptly substituted - Seamus Coleman is on.
GOAL! Everton 1-0 Boreham Wood (Rondon, 57 mins)
Everton take the lead! Kenny sends a low cross into the area and Rondon gets ahead of David Stephens and squeezes a low shot past Ashby-Hammond at the near post. The keeper looks gutted, but Rondon did well to squeeze that one past him.
Updated
55 mins: Boreham Wood have their first shot! Marsh intercepts a pass out of defence and gets a little excited, blazing over from 25 yards.
54 mins: Ashby-Hammond takes so long over his goal kick he gets a talking-to from the referee.
53 mins: There’s certainly a bit more zip to Everton’s passing since the break. Sadly Doucoure’s forward pass had enough zip to run away for a goal kick.
51 mins: Chance! The best opportunity of the game by a considerable distance ends with Kenny crossing from the right and the ball dipping onto Rondon’s head, six yards from goal, but the Venezuelan heads over the bar!
Updated
48 mins: Oooh! Mykolenko’s low cross from the left runs across goal, just out of Rondon’s reach, and away for a throw-in.
46 mins: Everton get the second half under way.
Everton are bringing Richarlison on for Nathan Patterson at half-time, precisely the kind of player they’ve been needing.
Everton lack pace and unpredictability in their forward line, but do at least have a couple of people on the bench who might bring some of that. Boreham Wood have left Tyrone Marsh isolated too often, making it impossible for him to keep the ball and thus for them to get out of defence, but I that won’t be an accident, and their defensive tactics are working perfectly. The pressure is on the home side to score, and it’s building all the time.
Half time: Everton 0-0 Boreham Wood
45+3 mins: But the Wood deal with it, and the half-time whistle blows with Everton yet to make a breakthrough or even, for all their possession, looking particularly likely to do so.
45+2 mins: Smith hits the ball into Mykolenko’s legs, hoping it’ll bounce off them and behind for a goal kick. But it hits him first, and the half will end with an Everton corner.
Updated
45+1 mins: Still goalless as we go into stoppage time, of which there’ll be about two minutes.
43 mins: Boreham Wood’s best attack of the game ends with Marsh, from an excellent crossing position, sending the ball straight to Begovic.
43 mins: A couple of minutes is all it takes for the situation to be dealt with and play to restart.
41 mins: The players call for medical assistance for someone in the stands, and the physios run over to see how they can help. There’ll be a bit of a stoppage while they do so.
38 mins: Lampard is complaining to the referee about timewasting, though really there hasn’t been much of it, perhaps because Boreham Wood haven’t had enough set pieces to waste much time before taking them.
37 mins: A nasty dipping cross from Gordon is pushed away by Ashby-Hammond, happily straight to a teammate.
35 mins: Boreham Wood win a free-kick wide on the left, and from it win a couple of headers on the edge of the Everton area. One of them sends the ball bouncing into the box in a potentially threatening manner, but Asmir Begovic is out smartly to collect.
32 mins: Ricketts gives the ball away in midfield, but Everton are a bit too slow with their attack and by the time the cross comes in there are eight black shirts defending the penalty area, one of which wins the header.
31 mins: The Wood are a third of the way to extra time, and their keeper has only had one shot on target to deal with.
29 mins: Will Evans thwacks the ball into touch, to massive cheers from the away fans. I’m assuming it was the away fans, but it sounded loud enough to have been most of the ground.
26 mins: Jonjoe Kenny hits a long crossfield pass straight out of play, and for the first time grumblings from the home fans can be heard.
23 mins: Rondon goes over on the right, winning Everton a free kick. Everton take a while to get everyone ready for it, and then Andros Townsend hits it straight into the nearest defender.
21 mins: Mark Ricketts, the Boreham Wood captain, is fouled just outside his own penalty area, and the visitors will get a chance to clear.
19 mins: Everton keep the ball for an age, not under much pressure, and eventually work it to Mykolenko on the left, in a good crossing position, at which point Kane Smith runs over at biffs it into touch.
16 mins: Another Everton shot, Jarrad Branthwaite missing the target from Gordon’s cut-back.
15 mins: I have managed to detect some similarities between the two managers’ coaching styles.
13 mins: Gordon’s shot hits the Boreham Wood wall.
12 mins: The deluge is coming, drenching the Boreham Wood defence in hard work. Gordon is clipped (just) a few yards outside the visitors’ penalty area, and Everton have a decent shooting chance.
10 mins: Now Allan sends a pass through to Doucoure, who shoots from an acute angle with next to no chance of actually scoring, and doesn’t score.
Updated
8 mins: Save! Everton break after Rondon beats his man on the right and it ends with Doucoure playing in Mykolenko, whose low shot is pushed away by Ashby-Hammond.
Updated
6 mins: Jonjoe Kenny initially struggles to deal with a ball through towards Tyrone Marsh, but he eventually manages to boot it clear.
3 mins: Both teams settle into back threes. Boreham Wood are letting Everton’s defenders have the ball and trying to block passing lines through to the attack. “Very sensitive for ITV to cut away from a playing of Imagine with the players visibly emotional so they could show an ad for [popular fast food restaurant],” sniffs Malcolm Jack.
1 min: Peeeeep! The game begins, and for about a second Boreham Wood enjoy 100% possession stats.
The players are out. John Lennon’s Imagine rings out. The cameras catch a fan wiping tears from his eyes. ITV go for an ad break.
The players are gathering in the tunnel, Everton’s clad in Ukraine flag capes.
Updated
Pretty good draw that - No blockbuster match, but Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea are all away from home so there is upset potential. The draw in full:
Crystal Palace v Everton or Boreham Wood
Nottingham Forest or Huddersfield Town v Liverpool
Middlesbrough v Chelsea
Southampton v Manchester City
Southampton are at home to Manchester City.
Middlesbrough are at home to Chelsea.
Nottingham Forest and Huddersfield play on Monday night with a home game against Liverpool the prize!
First out of the hat are Crystal Palace, who will host the winners of tonight’s Everton v Boreham Wood tie!
Updated
We’re about to have a quarter-final draw! The draw numbers in full:
1 Chelsea
2 Crystal Palace
3 Manchester City
4 Liverpool
5 Southampton
6 Middlesbrough
7 Nottingham Forest or Huddersfield Town
8 Everton or Boreham Wood
Frank Lampard says making Mykolenko his captain is “a symbol and a statement from ourselves of the unity we have with him”. Meanwhile, this is what he’s got to say about Boreham Wood:
It’s a great story, it’s what the FA Cup is about. The romantic side is great for them and everyone else, but for us tonight it’s business. I know that we have to respect them, and know they’ve got the job done [at Bournemouth], but we also have to believe in ourselves, with the level of players that we have, the fact we want to win this game. There’ll be no approaching this in the wrong way from our point of view.
This just in from PA Media:
Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who has ties to Everton, is being hit with sanctions in the UK under measures to pressure Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine.
The Foreign Office was also preparing to announce sanctions against former Russian deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov on Thursday evening after the move was signed off by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, the PA news agency understands.
Roman Abramovich, who says he will sell Chelsea, is not expected to be on the latest tranche of sanctioned oligarchs. But Ms Truss will establish an Oligarch Taskforce of ministers and officials from departments including the Home Office, the Treasury and the National Crime Agency to co-ordinate sanctions and build cases against targets.
The move came after a Government source acknowledged to the PA news agency that it could take “weeks and months” to build a legally watertight case against some Russian oligarchs. “We’re working round-the-clock and going as quick as we can,” the source added, with Ms Truss understood to have tripled the size of the sanctions team in recent months.
Mr Usmanov, whose commercial ties with Everton have been suspended, has already had his assets frozen as part of measures taken by the European Union. On Wednesday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer questioned why Mr Shuvalov, who served under Mr Putin as his deputy prime minister, had not been sanctioned.
Ms Truss said: “Our message to Putin and his allies has been clear from day one - invading Ukraine would have serious and crippling economic consequences. Sanctioning Usmanov and Shuvalov sends a clear message that we will hit oligarchs and individuals closely associated with the Putin regime and his barbarous war. We won’t stop here. Our aim is to cripple the Russian economy and starve Putin’s war machine.”
The teams!
The starting line-ups have been announced, and they look like this. Six changes for Everton, who give their Ukrainian left-back Vitaliy Mykolenko the captain’s armband, and two for the Wood.
Everton: Begovic, Patterson, Branthwaite, Keane, Kenny, Doucoure, Allan, Mykolenko, Townsend, Rondon, Gordon. Subs: Holgate, Richarlison, Iwobi, Coleman, Lonergan, Dobbin, Welch, Astley, Price.
Boreham Wood: Ashby-Hammond, Stevens, Stephens, Evans, Raymond, Ricketts, Kane Smith, Mendy, Rees, Marsh, Boden. Subs: Ashmore, Fyfield, Clifton, Comley, Connor Smith, Ranger.
Referee: Tony Harrington.
Your team to take on Boreham Wood! 🔵#EmiratesFACup pic.twitter.com/i4tkiitsVW
— Everton (@Everton) March 3, 2022
📄 𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐌 𝐍𝐄𝐖𝐒
— Boreham Wood FC (@BOREHAM_WOODFC) March 3, 2022
Here is YOUR Wood Army Line-up for the FA Cup 5th Round!!! 🤩#WeAreTheWood pic.twitter.com/OXHEr8Nckl
Updated
Just waiting for team news, but I can confirm that both sides are at Goodison Park, which is a start.
Hello world!
It’s romance-of-the-Cup central at Goodison Park this evening as Luke Garrard’s Boreham Wood attempt to vault a 78-position league pyramid gulf to land a blow on Everton’s chin having miraculously qualified for the last 16 of the nation’s premier knockout competition, while clad in brand new all-black kit paid for by their opponents. “It’s amazing to think we’re going to Goodison to pit our wits against Frank Lampard,” Garrard said. “To get to the fifth round, I’ve never ever dreamed about that. I think the closest I’ve managed to get to this has been playing on Fifa.”
With Everton widely priced in the neighbourhood of 1/10 with ye bookmakers (when the fun stops etc), what faces Garrard’s charges tonight is a task of genuinely Everestian proportions. “I’m not foolish in any way, shape, or form. They are unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable,” he says. “These are international players playing week in week out the highest level. So trust me, there’s a huge respect. But we go there with a purpose, we go there with a job. And if we can implement our game plan, we will cause them problems. But we need to be lucky. And sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.”
Lampard, who will play Vitalii Mykolenko from the start, has hailed the Wood’s achievement in reaching this stage. Obviously he plans to make them bitterly regret ever crossing his door, but he’ll certainly play the generous host along the way. “It’s very impressive. We treat them with the utmost respect which is why we prepare as if we prepare for any game,” he says. “They’re riding high in the league, they have a certain style which shows they’re well coached and managed. For any team in the league they’re in to reach this far is an absolute achievement.”
Here’s some pre-match reading for you. And welcome!
