Everton - 1 Birmingham - 0 Those travelling fans grim-faced in the Bullens Road stand took to bellowing, "You fat bastard" - though they were in no position to taunt. Wayne Rooney, irrepressible and inspirational, is back propelling Everton up the Premiership.

Unleashed belatedly into a dire game, the teenager almost single-handedly ensured his side go into the New Year in the relative security of mid-table. If the substitute's winning goal - spanked through a mêlée in the six-yard box as Birmingham cried foul - revived Everton's performance, his mere presence rescued this occasion.

It says much that the Merseysiders rely so heavily on an 18-year-old - albeit one as extraordinarily talented as Rooney - to impose themselves at this level, but that is the reality at Goodison Park these days.

"You can't keep him out of the picture," enthused assistant manager Alan Irvine, dispatched upstairs to undertake press duties presumably with Moyes reluctant to slip back into eulogising mode over his talisman.

Praise for the youngster is cliché these days, but it remains unavoidable. Summoned from the bench at the interval, Rooney provided desperately needed fizz to enliven a previously flat occasion. It was his centre that was side-footed goalwards by Kevin Kilbane just after the hour mark for Maik Taylor to tip desperately around his near post.

That set a more upbeat tone which, six minutes later, earned reward. Gary Naysmith's inswinging corner was palmed meekly out by the Northern Ireland international goalkeeper under awkward pressure from the loitering Duncan Ferguson and Alan Stubbs for Rooney to slam the loose ball through the muddle and in.

It was his third goal in four games, only one of which - his scoreless performance at Old Trafford on St Stephen's Day, the only game in which he started - has failed to yield bounty.

It took Rooney's introduction to shake everyone awake, although the ineffectiveness of his side's first-half display will give Moyes sleepless nights particularly as the transfer window looms ever larger.

Everton's gut instinct will always be to reject even tentative enquiries for the youngster, though Rooney - as their principal match-winner - remains at present the only saleable asset in the club's ranks.

As such, and as sacrilegious as it sounds, his transfer also represents the only means by which the manager can raise significant funds with which to build a team.

Therein lies Moyes's quandary even if, for the moment, it would seem inconceivable that the teenager's future could lie anywhere other than on Merseyside.

With Rooney, Everton are upwardly mobile; without him, as this match proved, the reality remains grim.