Liverpool // The game was deadlocked. It was the sort of impasse when the search was on for someone who could transform it. Someone with the ideas, the imagination or the invention to open it up.
Everton had that someone. Indeed, they had the man who invariably offers the inspiration in such situations.
A story of their season is that, time and again, Roberto Martinez makes a huge impact with his substitutions.
An agreeable demeanour masks an analytical brain that he puts to good use in tight games.
Romelu Lukaku, Gerard Deulofeu, Leon Osman and Steven Pienaar have all been summoned for crucial cameos. On Sunday it was Steven Naismith’s turn.
Everton were underachieving after an hour, drawing with a second-string Swansea side.
A dozen minutes later, the Scottish substitute had sealed their place in the FA Cup quarter-finals.
It was less of a reward than it appeared when the final whistle blew – a trip to Arsenal or Liverpool in the last eight means that, if Everton are to reach Wembley Stadium, they will have to eliminate one of the favourites – but it was a potentially vital intervention, nonetheless.
Naismith’s first contribution was to divert Seamus Coleman’s cross onto Pienaar’s head.
The diving South African was fractionally off target, but his supplier was altogether more accurate immediately afterward. Latching onto Neil Taylor’s misplaced back-pass, he steered a shot past Gerhard Tremmel.
Then, symbolising the way Swansea were unable to contain Naismith, Jazz Richards chopped him down. Leighton Baines dispatched the resulting penalty with predictable ease.
Having entered proceedings late, Naismith departed early.
“He had a bit of delayed concussion,” Martinez said. “He said he didn’t remember he scored, so I told him he scored from 40 yards.”
That joke apart, he paid tribute to one of Everton’s unheralded talents.
“He is a gem of a boy, an incredible footballer and he is enjoying his football,” he said. “He is instinctive and a real threat.”
So he proved. Naismith was actually demoted from the starting 11, allowing Everton, operating without a specialist striker since Lukaku was injured, to introduce one.
Lacina Traore duly scored four minutes into his debut, back-heeling them ahead after Sylvain Distin’s pass.
“It is a beautiful sign for the future,” said Martinez, pleased to see the on-loan Ivorian open his account following his January move from Monaco.
He was aided by a lack of marking. Indeed, both sides were found wanting defensively.
Swansea could have scored after 30 seconds, when Alvaro Vazquez’s touch betrayed him, and did after a quarter of an hour, when Jonathan de Guzman headed in Taylor’s cross.
Taylor’s afternoon descended from encouraging to excruciating when he picked out Naismith.
“An individual error,” said Swansea’s acting manager, Garry Monk. All three goals followed mistakes and Monk, condemned to defeat for the first time as a coach, added: “We kind of gifted it to them.”
The presents ended for Everton with the toughest of draws, but Martinez is hardly bowed.
“If you want to win the cup, you need to be able to face anyone,” he said.
Everton can, not least because they have a manager with the ability to change any game.
sports@thenational.ae