If Everton’s players were looking for sympathy from their manager, having been jeered off by their supporters at Ewood Park last night, there was none forthcoming. After elimination from the Carling Cup added to the frustrations of a curiously disjointed start to the season, it was tempting to wonder if a Merseyside derby at home on Saturday is the last thing they need, or the perfect cue for a fightback.

David Moyes, the Everton manager, will certainly hope that it is the latter, but on this and recent evidence, the rot that Blackburn Rovers exploited at Goodison Park on the opening day of the season threatens to spread. “Whatever the supporters did, they were entitled to do it because we weren’t good enough,” Moyes said.

On another night, had his team performed marginally better, Moyes might have rued James Vaughan’s disallowed goal late on, but he admitted that Blackburn were the better team and deserved the victory. He picked out Tugay Kerimoglu as the game’s outstanding player, having toyed with Segundo Castillo and Marouane Felliani until Everton’s new midfield players were replaced at half-time. But there were positives all over the pitch for Paul Ince, the Blackburn manager, not least in the performances of Martin Olsson, the 19-year-old left back, and Robbie Fowler, making his first appearance since last December, for Cardiff City.

They were the players who combined for the only goal, in the tenth minute, as a perfect one-two allowed Olsson to cut inside Phil Jagielka and steer a low shot past Tim Howard, the perfect way to mark his first full appearance since joining from Hogaborgs in January 2006.

Paul Robinson, the Blackburn goal-keeper, left the pitch soon after with a strained calf - a precaution, Ince said - and will have a scan today. His replacement, Jason Brown, was relieved when the referee ruled that he had been fouled when Vaughan attacked a corner, but Moyes had no complaints. His grievances, it seemed, lay with his players. With Liverpool next, he will be hoping for a reaction.

Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2): P Robinson (sub: J Brown, 13min) — D Simpson, A Ooijer, Z Khizanishvili, M Olsson — C Villanueva (sub: R Santa Cruz, 72), Tugay Kerimoglu, S Warnock, K Treacy (sub: M G Pedersen, 74) — R Fowler, M Derbyshire. Substitutes not used: C Samba, R Nelsen, T Kane, J Roberts. Booked: Warnock, Villanueva.

Everton (4-4-2): T Howard — P Neville, P Jagielka, J Yobo, J Lescott — J Rodwell, S Castillo (sub: T Cahill, 46), M Fellaini (sub: Yakubu Ayegbeni, 46), L Osman — L Saha, J Vaughan (sub: J Baxter, 82). Substitutes not used: I Turner, A Hibbert, L Baines, N Valente. Booked: Neville, Vaughan.

Referee: M Atkinson.

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