Dom’s double is Silva lining
Striker can push for England call
WHO will be next to the party after Jamie Vardy? Gareth Southgate will ponder that question as he looks to reshape England’s squad for the future.
If Dominic Calvert-Lewin has anything to do with it, Southgate will find the answer at Goodison Park. The young Everton striker will not be in England’s squad unveiled today for games with Spain and Switzerland. But if he keeps playing as he did against Rotherham, his time will come.
Two goals from Calvert-Lewin — the second a brilliantly curled effort — put the gloss on a deeply encouraging individual performance and ensured Everton worked their way past spirited and tenacious opponents from the Championship to reach the Carabao Cup third round.
The final score was 3- 1 and Rotherham were in the tie until the last few moments — much to manager Paul Warne’s satisfaction.
It was only due to Everton’s extra class, particularly provided by Calvert-Lewin, that the hosts negotiated a tricky assignment.
Everton head coach Marco Silva said: ‘Dominic did well and it is important for a striker to score goals. There are some moments in which he can do better, for sure, but he only had a short pre- season. I am really pleased with him.’
In keeping with the trend of this competition, both sides made eight changes — Warne insisted this was not a sign of disrespect from Rotherham — but the most significant alteration for Everton came when the captain’s armband was handed to Tom Davies.
At 20 years and 69 days, he became the youngest player to lead an Everton team.
Davies, as is his way, was a busy figure throughout. He was constantly involved and tried his best to establish a foothold for his team against spirited opponents who served early notice of their intentions with speculative efforts from striker Jamie Proctor and Joe Newell. Soon, nonetheless, Everton began to find a rhythm. After Gylfi Sigurdsson forced goalkeeper Lewis Price to make a plunging save in the 21st minute, the Iceland international released the tension which was building inside the stadium by bundling the ball in from close range as a delivery fizzed across the six-yard box. The goal was created planting Lucas Digne’s cross beyond Price with a header — Everton were still not comfortable as Rotherham substitute Will Vaulks raised hopes of a grandstand finish.
Almost immediately, however, Everton swept forward and Davies’ driving run opened up an avenue for Calvert- Lewin to exploit.
from the left side of the penalty area, he whipped a shot into the top corner of the Gwladys Street net to secure the home side’s safe passage.
‘This is important to us,’ said Silva. ‘There were some good moments of football.’