No Grealish, no problem: Everton 3-1 Newcastle, and a cup run that is starting to look serious

The team news was the story before a ball was kicked, and by full time it barely mattered. Jack Grealish, the biggest name in Everton's squad, was left out entirely on Thursday night, dropped for a breach of club discipline after an unauthorised absence from training. What followed at Hill Dickinson Stadium was a 3-1 win over Newcastle United, three goals from three different scorers, and a place in the Carabao Cup quarter finals. Everton arrived on the back of two straight league defeats without scoring. They left looking like a side that had found its season again in the competition nobody expected to give it one.

Newcastle started the brighter team and Jordan Pickford had to be sharp, saving from Harvey Barnes, Joe Willock and Fabian Schar while his defence blocked and tackled in front of him. Then Everton took the game away in eleven minutes either side of half time. Tyrique George's pressure won the ball, Hackney flicked it on, and James Garner curled a low finish into the far corner in the 34th minute, his first goal since January. Right on half time Pickford started a counter, Barry crossed, and Hayden Hackney volleyed in his first goal for the club, on only his third start since his summer move from Middlesbrough. A tie Newcastle had started well was suddenly 2-0 and running away from them.

Newcastle threw their bench at it, bringing on Yoane Wissa, Joelinton and Anthony Elanga at half time, and Everton simply picked them off. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall crossed in the 69th minute and Barry finished to make it 3-0, taking his personal tally in this competition to four goals and two assists in three games. Dan Burn headed one back in the 88th minute, a consolation and nothing more, and the side that lifted this trophy in 2025 went out with barely a fight in the closing stages. The draw that follows is the kind cup runs are built on: League Two Fleetwood Town away in December, the same Fleetwood who knocked Arsenal out on penalties earlier in the week, with a first cup semi final since 2016 one win away.

Our call is that the Grealish decision, not the scoreline, is the part of this night that travels. Dropping your star loanee for missing training is easy to announce and hard to survive if the team then loses, and Moyes survived it because the players picked instead played like the place was theirs to keep. Hackney, in particular, now has a goal, an assist and a performance that makes him very difficult to leave out, which is exactly the pressure a manager wants a disciplinary call to create. Everton have never won this competition and have not lifted a trophy since the FA Cup in 1995, a 31 year wait their supporters can recite from memory. Fleetwood away in December is no formality, as Arsenal just learned, but it is the draw Everton would have chosen. Win there, and the wait stops being a statistic and starts being a countdown.