Guile of Gazza is too much for Os

He's never stopped believing, even if everyone else has.

It was all quite poignant really. A few months ago, I listened to Mike Tyson sighing how he was "old too soon and smart too late", a little pearl which, of course, he since so spectacularly ignored. Yet, somehow, it fits Gazza perfectly.

He's come clean publicly about his drink problems, he looks lean and his attitude seems utterly professional on and off the field. To interviewers on Saturday, there was no gurning or belching, just a serious, graceful appraisal of the game. Whisper it, but he really does seem to have grown up.

Mind, he felt his age out there when he did a double-take at Orient's former Spurs midfielder Jeff Minton and asked: "Is that Jeff ? You used to clean me boots 15 years ago." Well, cleaning his boots was probably more fun than having to chase them so helplessly.

For here was a reminder, even if in slower motion than in his pomp, of that rare quality which Gascoigne possesses but which no England midfielder since - not Beckham, not even Gerrard - has had in his armoury. That is, the sheer skill, based on twinkling footwork at pace, to run at and shred opponents.

Three such runs - the coup de grace being the breathtaking slalom which took out four Orient defenders before he slotted the ball through for Kevin Campbell's second - set up Everton goals, one for Duncan Ferguson (32 minutes) and two for captain Campbell (45 and 79), even if the home side's first after 11 minutes owed only to an exquisite diving header from poor old David McGhee, who unfortunately will probably never score a better one. Er, at the right end.

Campbell's double seemed a rather ungrateful way to repay the Orient Supporters Club, who had made a special pre-match presentation to him to mark the nine goals which he contributed to their Fourth Division promotion push back in 1989 when on-loan from Arsenal.

His first, making it 3-1 just when Orient had sighted a lifeline through Scott Canham's 36th-minute goal, effectively killed the contest, yet Gazza, not Campbell, was the real assassin.

"I'd have hated to play against him when he still had his legs, because he's supposed not to have them any more," sighed Andy Harris, who ran his heart out but found that not even being the Mensa man equipped him to cope with the puzzles set by Gascoigne.

Still, he was bright enough to position himself next to Gazza when the final whistle went, thus ensuring he landed the prize No18 shirt. Gascoigne wooed the Orient lads afterwards with words of encouragement and the way they all hugged him demonstrated how, because he has never lost the common touch, English football has never lost its affection for him.

"Yep, if he'd like a couple of quid and he wants to come down to Orient before he retires, we can talk business," chuckled the ever-generous Hearn, even if he did concede that the deal would probably have to be negotiated in a dark alley off Brisbane Road.