Osman edges Everton past minnows Macclesfield

Leon Osman put Macclesfield Town's hopes of an FA Cup giant killing into cold storage for another season with the winning goal in Everton's 1-0 victory over the League Two minnows at Moss Rose on Saturday.

Osman conjured up a brilliant fourth goal of the season to make sure that boss David Moyes avoided more FA Cup embarrassment – following last season's red-faced exit to League One Oldham Athletic in the third round.

The FA Cup has not been much of a friend to Moyes since he moved to Goodison Park and this was only his fifth win in the competition in the last five years, after also being turfed out of the competition by Shrewsbury Town.

And he will be glad that he did not get his way on Friday, when referee Peter Walton declared the game fit to go ahead, after an early inspection, when the Everton boss was not happy at all with the playing surface.

Around 40 volunteers worked into the early hours of Friday morning to ensure the pitch, which had been covered all week, was playable after all the freezing weather had left the playing surface rock hard.

Huge covers had hot air blown under them by the Macclesfield fans, who worked in shifts, starting early on Saturday morning, but all their hard work was in vain as Keith Alexander's side were frozen out by their Premier League rivals.

Macclesfield had only ever ventured to this stage of the competition on eight occasions and once again they were left wondering what it must be like to make the fourth round, having never reached that stage in their history, and they certainly deserved more after giving their illustrious opponents a few first half scares.

Keith Alexander's League Two bunch of promising kids and experienced heads certainly gave Everton plenty to think about and could easily have take the lead on two occasions in the opening 15 minutes, when Everton still seemed to have reservations about the playing surface.

Terry Dunfield fired over the bar after a mistake by Phil Neville in his own penalty area. And Nat Brown headed over the cross bar after Dunfield and James Jennings combined cleverly from a short free kick to catch Everton's defence napping.

Those wasted chances came back to haunt them two minutes before the break.

Everton had barely mustered an attack, apart from a weak effort by Tim Cahill and a Leighton Baines cross that fizzed through the six yard box avoiding Osman and Victor Anichebe, but they showed their class on the stroke of the interval.

Mikel Arteta's cross was only half cleared by Sean Hessey, but there was still plenty for Osman to do to control on his chest before unleashing a venomous shot that Macc keeper Jon Brain could only help into his own net.

It was a rare moment of quality – although Anichebe did come close to adding a second with a wonderful curling shot from the corner of the box – and no matter how hard they tried, Alexander's side could not get within striking distance of Tim Howard's goal, despite their promising spells of possession.