West Ham 1, Everton 2 - post match analysis

Dec 13 2007 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

AS leaving gifts go, it was a pretty good one. Days after confirming his absence in the New Year, Yakubu ensured Everton will have something to remember him by after firing David Moyes’s side into the semi-finals of the Carling Cup.

The Nigeria international continued the Goodison outfit’s penchant for late goals by capitalising on a horrendous mistake by West Ham United centre-back Danny Gabbidon to score the winner two minutes from time.

The strike, greeted by the sight of his manager rushing on to the Upton Park turf punching both fists into the air in unrestrained delight, was Yakubu’s 10th goal since his club record £11.25million move from Middlesbrough in the summer – and his most important yet.

It guaranteed a thoroughly deserved victory that puts Everton into the last four of the competition for the first time in 20 years.

Of course, the forward will be in Ghana with the Nigeria squad for the African Cup of Nations when Moyes’s men play that two-legged encounter next month.

But it wasn’t just Yakubu – who has six goals from his last four starts – that excelled on a night when Everton had to call on their deep reserves of character to come from behind after conceding the self-inflicted wound of Carlton Cole’s 12th-minute opener.

Steven Pienaar’s outstanding personal display was rewarded by an assist for Leon Osman’s 40th-minute equaliser, a finish that capped a fine move from the visitors.

It would be wrong to make any major issue of the good fortune Everton enjoyed with Gabbidon’s dreadful late blunder.

They had earned that luck. In terms of quality and application, the Goodison side were easily the superior team on the night and, when it came down to basic desire, they simply wanted it more.

Much to the disgruntlement of their support and manager Alan Curbishley, West Ham were outplayed and outfought.

The win extends Everton’s unbeaten run to 11 games and was notably the first time they had come from behind to win during that time. Put into context, the last time they enjoyed such a sequence in a single campaign was back in 1986.

Intriguingly, the only previous occasion Everton and West Ham had met in the competition before last night was in 1984, the Goodison outfit won 2-0 after a replay before going on to reach the final. And with only one further obstacle to be hurdled to secure a date at Wembley in late February, who can argue against a repeat after this win?

Certainly – although the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal remain in the competition – this in-form Everton would surely fancy their chances against anyone over two games.

While the chilly temperatures persuaded some home supporters to stay at home last night, the visitors’ section inside Upton Park was sold out as Everton fans, starved of much to cheer in cups in recent years, made the journey south en masse.

Small wonder. Everton had been absent from this stage of the League Cup since January 1988 and this was the first time they had reached the last eight of any knockout competition since Moyes assumed charge in March 2002.

So the manager’s insistence his squad is better equipped than ever for success in the cups continues to ring true.

UEFA Cup football already secured beyond Christmas, Everton now have the chance to leave a major mark on a competition that has rarely offered much joy for the Goodison outfit under any of its guises.

Moyes’s side went into the game on the back of a Yakubu-inspired 3-0 thumping of Fulham at the weekend.

West Ham were in similarly fine form, losing just one of their previous eight games while scoring a notable 1-0 victory at Blackburn Rovers in their most recent fixture last Sunday.

Yakubu was soon in the action when glancing a Mikel Arteta corner harmlessly wide while, at the other end, Phil Jagielka was alert to take the ball off the toes of Dean Ashton as both teams started confidently.

But Everton fell behind in the 12th minute with a strike that would have enraged Moyes. A long diagonal punt forward by Scott Parker from the right towards the edge of the area should not have posed any danger to the visitors.

However, Joseph Yobo and Phil Neville were guilty of thinking the other had Cole covered and allowed the striker to steal in completely unmarked, dance around Tim Howard and slot home.

It was an uncharacteristic goal to concede for a team that had kept six clean sheets in their previous nine games.

As replacement for the injured Leighton Baines, Jagielka was the only change from the team that beat Fulham at the weekend, coming in at the heart of the defence with Joleon Lescott moving over to left-back.

And that reshuffle seemed to temporarily unsettle an Everton backline that looked on edge against the pace and power of Ashton and Cole during the opening quarter.

But after Ashton and Luis Boa Morte were wayward with speculative efforts, Howard was virtually unemployed as Everton gradually regained their composure and slowly began to pin their hosts back.

And it was from a sustained bout of pressure that Pienaar fashioned a deserved equaliser five minutes before the interval.

The South African had moments earlier posted note of his threat down the left with an inviting low cross that Robert Green parried clear, the West Ham goalkeeper fortunate to see the ball somehow wriggle between Tim Cahill’s legs with the Australian primed to capitalise in the six-yard box.

But Pienaar then found his range when, after teasing a gaggle of defenders in a packed penalty area, he cut the ball back for Osman to strike first time past the unsighted Green from 15 yards.

Pienaar claimed a penalty shortly after half-time after tussling with Lucas Neill as Everton began the half in similarly determined fashion.

West Ham, though, rediscovered their early zeal and screamed for a spot-kick of their own when Lescott outmuscled Cole.

The goalscorer was then wide when attempting to prod in Freddie Ljungberg’s corner at the near post, while a fine tackle from George McCartney denied Arteta the chance to convert Yakubu’s throughball.

However, clear-cut openings were at a premium as both teams realised what was at stake as the game entered its final quarter.

A mistake seemed the most likely source of a goal, and so it proved when Yakubu made West Ham pay for some poor defending in the 88th minute when, in chasing Lee Carsley’s punt forward, the striker’s pressure forced Gabbidon to head the bouncing ball away from his own keeper Green.

The Nigerian then prodded the loose ball into the empty net to cue manic celebrations from the travelling army and the visitors’ bench. Everton are now one step from Wembley.