'Wayne Rooney was always supposed to come of age at Everton. Unflappable amid the maelstrom, unperturbed by the bile and the blur of missiles launched from the stands on Saturday, he duly did just that here.
It is doubtful whether the teenager has ever mustered a more professional performance than this. He will certainly never have experienced such provocation, from the embittered taunts of "Judas" which greeted him from those crammed on Goodison Road as he descended the team bus on arrival to the chants of "Die, die Rooney" which pursued him as the coach pulled away post-match. In between, he was admirably detached.
Only once did emotion better him. His pre-match warm-up having ended with a display of ball juggling, the 19-year-old made to depart down the tunnel only for two representatives of Everton's match ball sponsors to make their feelings plain at Rooney's defection to Manchester United. One of them, a woman, accused the youngster of being a "traitor", prompting a snarled reply before the visitors' goalkeeping coach Tony Coton ushered him away.
That her male colleague then punched the air towards the Gwladys Street end did his company no credit. Everton were embarrassed by the incident, which set a troubling tone, and the police have been informed. "We view the situation very seriously and it will be investigated," said a club spokesman. "What happened was certainly unfortunate."
Yet if the striker who once delighted in these parts was unsettled by the confrontation, it did not show. Five minutes into this contest the ball dribbled out of play in the corner where the Main and Gwladys Street stands meet. Rooney could have waited for it to be retrieved by a ball boy but instead trotted over to the corner, and off the turf, to gather it himself while the home partisans subjected him to a chorus of filth. The teenager did not flinch.
As an indication of the thickness of his skin, his dispassionate response must have deflated his detractors.'
New Fanzine out Wednesday