Everton's defence survived well until nine minutes before half time when Fulham took the lead. Weir gave away a free kick which was used to put Rufus Brevett in a position to cross/ He did so, right onto the head of Hayles, who nodded in comfortably.
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However, from the resulting corner, Hayles tapped in his and Fulham's second, and Everton had lost thier way in the game. Paul Gascoigne was replaced by Alexandersson on 57 minutes, but the creative Sweedish star didn't lift Everton's game at all.
The only other notable incident was a ten man scrap towards the end of the game. The incident started with Boa Morte catching Weir as he cleared the ball on the edge of his penalty area - and the Everton defender then dragged his foot into Boa Morte's face as he got to his feet. A few other player's ventured in and eventually Referee Dowd decided to show the red card to both Weir and Boa Morte. The decision was slightly mistifying, mainly because they were far from the only guilty parties. A more sensibly descison would have been to warn both players and play out the rest of the game.
After the game Walter Smith said that he intended to appeal against the decision. However, despite the fact that i don't think he should have been sent off, Weir did act agressivley, and this means that it is very unlikely that the Referee will see fit to change his mind.
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