James Vaughan became the latest teenager to be feted at Goodison Park when his goal in a 4-0 win against struggling Crystal Palace established the 16-year-old as the youngest English Premiership goal-scorer.
At 16 years and 271 days old, Vaughan beat the record of James Milner, now at Newcastle, who was 16 years and 357 days old when he scored for Leeds in the Premiership.
And his goal also saw him become Everton’s youngest scorer, supplanting Wayne Rooney, now at Manchester United, who was four days older than Milner when he first netted in English football’s top flight.
Rooney was the last prodigy to burst into David Moyes’s first team from the club’s academy, but the England striker’s controversial transfer to Old Trafford last August has left feelings of bitterness and anger that are sure to surface again when his new club visit in nine days’ time.
By then, though, Evertonians will have had time to savour the emergence of the powerful, Birmingham-born Vaughan, who has graduated into the senior squad after just a handful of training sessions with the first team.
Vaughan made his debut recently for England under-17s and is still a world away from matching Rooney’s achievements.
And Moyes and his staff are all too aware they must now do all they can to deflect the predictable scrutiny that will accompany the youngster’s future appearances.
”There will inevitably be comparisons made between James and Wayne Rooney because of their age and the position they play,” said Alan Irvine, the Everton assistant manager.
”But only time will tell if James can be as successful as Wayne, although we obviously hope he will.
”They are different types of player; James likes to play right up on the defence while Wayne prefers to drop deep and run at players. But James is a very robust, physical player and you saw that from one of his first challenges against Darren Powell.
”It’s an amazing rise from him because he has only trained with the other players about 10 times since he came up from the academy, but he has already made an impression. We like what we have seen and we took the decision this week to include him in all our pre-match preparations.
”And, like most young lads, he has got his chance only because other players are not available and the squad has been stretched to the limit.”
Irvine added: ”We told him on the morning of the game he would be on the bench and then we were weighing up whether to put him on or risk James McFadden’s hamstring.
”The only other player to really make the jump from the academy into the first team squad was Wayne, but James was given his chance and he grabbed it with both hands.
”He has a knack of scoring whether that is for the reserves, the youth team, England under-17s or the first team today [Sunday] and his goal showed just how aggressive he is inside the box.”
Introduced in the 74th minute, Vaughan set a record when he stepped on to the pitch by breaking Joe Royle’s mark of 16 years and 282 days as Everton’s youngest player.
And three minutes before full-time, he capped an emphatic display by finishing a sweeping three-man move when he connected with Kevin Kilbane’s low cross.
Earlier, a Mikel Arteta free kick and double from Australia midfielder Tim Cahill had left hosts Everton in complete control.
Iain Dowie, the Crystal Palace manager, was frustrated after a reverse that left the Londoners second from bottom and facing a crucial home fixture against basement club Norwich City on Saturday.
”We are creating lots of chances but we need to punish teams and learn how to finish those chances off,” Dowie said. ”We had three good opportunities to get back into the game, but we didn’t take one of them.
”We are going to have to sharpen up our act against Norwich if we are going to get something from the game.
I couldn’t understand our second-half performance and I hope there is a lot of dented pride and anger stirring in the stomachs of those in the dressing room right now.” — Sapa-AFP