On this day in 2017, Wayne Rooney completed his hat-trick in Everton’s 4-0 thrashing of West Ham United with a goal hit from inside his own half of the pitch
It’s been a tough week for Wayne Rooney with wife Coleen admitting to her jungle camp mates on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! that she feels the pressure now he’s managing more then when he’s playing after his Plymouth Argyle side were beaten 6-1 at Norwich City but this time seven years ago, Everton’s most-talented home-grown hero of all-time was enjoying a perfect night. Taking time out from the bushtucker trials, Coleen admitted in Wednesday night’s show: “I find it more nerve wracking him being a manager than I did… I feel more pressure.”
For his part, a frustrated Rooney proclaimed that the Pilgrims’ Under-18s team would have put up more of a fight at Carrow Road than his senior side after they were hit for six by the Canaries. On November 29, 2017, everything came together though for the Croxteth superstar as he netted a hat-trick in the Blues’ 4-0 thrashing of West Ham United with Rooney completing his treble against former boss David Moyes’ charges with an outrageous strike from inside his own half.
Rooney said: “It was one of the best goals I’ve ever scored. I hit it as well as I’ve ever hit a football. To make it my first Everton hat-trick was special. It was a perfect moment.”
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The game was caretaker manager David Unsworth’s final fixture in charge with new Blues boss Sam Allardyce watching on from the directors’ box in the Goodison Park Main Stand alongside majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri. Although Rooney would go on to net in three consecutive matches for his fledgling gaffer the following month, including an equaliser in a Merseyside Derby to earn a 1-1 draw against Liverpool at Anfield, ensuring he hit double figures in a season for the first time with his boyhood club, Allardyce would move him back into midfield for the second half of the campaign and the then 32-year-old failed to add to his total.
After nailing the Hammers, Rooney said: “It’s a new chapter. Sam is a very good manager.
“I’m sure he’ll bring some new ideas. We’re looking forward to our first session with him tomorrow. We had to win. We had to stand up and show what good players we are.
“It’s the first step of where we want to go – moving up the league.”
After defecting from Goodison to Old Trafford when still just 18 in 2004 despite having famously displayed his ‘Once a blue, always a blue’ t-shirt a couple of years earlier, for a long time Rooney was considered a Judas figure among many Everton supporters and his on-field returns to his former stomping ground were marred by several ugly flashpoints. As the seasons passed though, there did appear to be a thawing.
Rooney attended the 2009 FA Cup final against Chelsea as an Everton ‘fan’ and despite being well on his way to becoming Manchester United’s all-time leading goalscorer, when he became a father, he’d dress his sons in both United and Everton replica kits and pyjamas. He even got to don the royal blue jersey again at Goodison for Duncan Ferguson’s testimonial match in 2015 while the following summer, Everton went to Old Trafford to provide the opposition for Rooney’s own United testimonial.
By 2017, after winning every honour in club football with Manchester United, Rooney was deemed surplus to requirements by manager Jose Mourinho. Romelu Lukaku was on the verge of following him down the East Lancs Road in a £75million move and although the two deals weren’t officially linked, Rooney, granted a free transfer, would return to Everton as a Prodigal Son the day before the Belgian striker sealed his own switch.
Some 13 years had passed since he last played for the club – it was the longest gap of any returning Blues player – but he headed in a goal on his second Premier League debut against Stoke City to suggest there was still some fuel left in the tank.
After a 5-1 home drubbing by Atalanta just six days prior to this game, Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport lamented of Rooney: “He is a walking monument. It is sad to see him in this condition.”
But even if the legs had gone, that footballing brain was still razor sharp.
Phil Kirkbride wrote in the ECHO: “At Goodison there was something old, something new, something borrowed and, in the end, three vital points for the boys in royal blue.
“Against a West Ham side managed by David Moyes, and in front of soon-to-be new boss Sam Allardyce, David Unsworth brought his caretaker reign to an end with an uplifting victory that had the Old Lady singing. Wayne Rooney completed his first ever hat-trick for the club by scoring majestically from inside his own half just minutes after a Jordan Pickford penalty save took the wind out of the Hammers’ sails before Ashley Williams ensured it became a drubbing when he headed home Gylfi Sigurdsson’s corner late on.”
Rooney showed he wasn’t that slow off the mark when he was first to the rebound to head in after his 18th minute penalty was saved by Joe Hart while he stroked home a second 10 minutes later after being teed up by a couple of other local lads, Tom Davies and Jonjoe Kenny.
Kirkbride described Rooney’s 59-yard hat-trick goal on 66 minutes as “picture perfect, struck as if he had used a golf club, flighted sublimely over two West Ham defenders and into an unguarded net with Hart stranded outside the box.”
Outgoing Everton caretaker manager Unsworth, who had taken the reins following Ronald Koeman’s sacking, said: “It’s a great night, not for me but for the club. Every player was committed.
“I asked them to be men tonight. If you can stand up there and fight in times of trouble, that says a lot. It was a great hat-trick, great display from Wayne. He was captain for a reason.
“I’m delighted for the club. I took over when we were in the bottom three and we’ve got out of it in the six weeks. We expect more. The players have shown tonight that when they are confident, we can keep clean sheets and score goals.
“Goodison must be a fortress for the rest of the season if we are to finish in the top half. I spoke to Sam Allardyce for about 10 or 15 minutes about the season in general, but I picked the team.”
