Match report from the afternoon away win versus West Ham United
|
Great Britain may well be celebrating the crowning of David Haye as a new boxing world champion but it was West Ham United that were knocked out by a classic Everton one-two at Upton Park.
Despite dominating this contest, Gianfranco Zola's Hammers were felled by killer strikes from Louis Saha and Dan Gosling.
And although Tony Hibbert's own goal gave the East Enders hope of climbing back off the ropes, the Merseysiders held on to secure a vital victory that sent West Ham crashing back into the drop-zone.
The zip and zest of Zavon Hines had given the 17th-placed Hammers their first home victory of the season against Aston Villa on Wednesday evening and, after bagging the 93rd-minute winner, the England Under-21 striker kept his place after Carlton Cole (hamstring) was forced to stand down.
The curse of the hamstring meant that West Ham were also without Herita Ilunga, while Mark Noble was demoted to the bench, as Jonathan Spector and Luis Jimenez earned recalls to a home side that started in positive mood.
Inside the opening 25 minutes, Hines had caused the Everton defence a few uncomfortable moments, while Guillermo Franco was only a stud away from forcing home Julien Faubert's cross in at the near post and then Scott Parker weaved his way into shooting range before forcing Tim Howard to save.
Following their Benfica blow-out in the Europa League on Thursday evening, 14th-placed Everton had made two changes as John Heitinga and top-scorer Saha replaced the suspended Diniyar Bilyaletdinov and substitute Yakubu.
Certainly, David Moyes' Merseysiders had posed little threat to the hard-working Hammers but, as the half-hour mark approached, they surprisingly broke the deadlock, when Saha strode onto Tim Cahill's knock-down and lashed a low 20-yarder past the flat-footed Robert Green to give the visitors an interval lead with his ninth goal of the season.
Zola replaced Jack Collison with Junior Stanislas for the restart and, as the Hammers again started in lively fashion, Hibbert and Marouane Fellaini followed Jack Rodwell - who had earlier been cautioned for encroachment - into referee Alan Wiley's book for fouls on Hines and Valon Behrami.
As the hour-mark approached, Zola introduced Alessandro Diamanti in place of the jaded Jimenez, while Moyes brought on Yakubu for Saha and those two switches certainly saw the game spark back into life.
On 64 minutes, Wiley controversially allowed Cahill's shove on Behrami to go unpunished and, when the ball broke to Gosling, he lashed home his third strike of the campaign at the far post, with his second bite of the cherry after Green had blocked his first shot with his legs.
But West Ham were handed a lifeline just seconds later, when the sliding Hibbert fired his attempted goal-line clearance into the roof of the net after Diamanti's inch-perfect pass had enabled Stanislas to chip the advancing Howard.
Roared on by the claret and blue fans amongst the 32,466 crowd, the Hammers went in search of an equaliser as Diamanti curled inches over the angle and Hines twice prodded wide, while Heitinga and Joseph Yobo took the Everton yellow card tally to five.
Diamanti's arrival had certainly livened up proceedings and, after the Italian's 25-yard free-kick was brilliantly beaten out by Howard, former Hammers skipper Lucas Neill was given a hostile reception when he came on to help shore up a creaking Everton side that held on for their first win in eight matches. |
>> Terms & Conditions