Match Preview

West Brom came out of the gate with determination to give David Moyes's unchanged team an early fright, hitting the bar after 5 mins.  The Baggies continued to dominate, with Jason Koumas running the show, as if he had some point to prove...  On 15 mins, Koumas had an excellent shot that bobble in front of Wright, who was able to smother the danger.

Then, another attack, and West Brom were given a penalty when Alan Stubbs was penalized for handball but there were strong claims by the Everton players and David Moyes that he was pushed.  Balis sent Wright the wrong way, and the appearance of a banana skin on the pitch seemed an ominous omen for Everton.  

But a few minutes later, a brilliant in-swinging corner from Mark Pembridge beat the defence and Everton scored a quick and vital equalizer.  Weir appeared to have scored with a glancing header but slo-mo replays clearly show Weir missed the ball completely. 

So who scored the first goal in this game?  Campbell originally got credit and then Hoult was credited with an own goal as the replays clearly showed him punch it ahead of Campbell. However, the official FA confirmation is that our first goal in this match was credited to David Weir, even though Weir's flick-on actually missed his head completely!  Campbell and Hoult went up for the ball together with Campbell forcing the vital touch off goalkeeper Hoult.

It was really a combination of Campbell's head and Hoult's fist that powered the ball into the net.  Our inclination was to give it to SuperKev for without his presence it would not have gone in, but the FA Dubious Goa

ls Panel thought differently, crediting it at first to the West Brom goalie, whose fist was in front of Campbell's head, and thus responsible for directing the ball into the net...  but hen they had a change of mind and gave it instead to Weir.  All square with all to play for.

The official line is that the disputed goals panel decided that Weir made contact with his [attempted] flick-on and as the header was deemed to be on target, the fact that Hoult punched it into the net makes no difference, apparently, and Davie Weir is the official scorer of the first goal

Campbell then got on the end of a great Yobo cross, and fired home a perfect header but the linesman was flagging for a very marginal offside.  It all kicked off in one of the stands at that point, with some serious fighting occurring.

Yobo was playing well and coming forward a lot, being a significant factor in the extraordinary number of corners won by Everton.  But this was a real end-to-end humdinger, with West Brom still making some good forward runs and penetrating attacks, Lee Hughes completely missing an open goal in one instance.

Meanwhile on the sidelines, David Moyes was getting into it big time with the fourth official, and the ref finally coming over to show him a red card and banish him to the stands for ‘foul and abusive language and improper behaviour’.  Shocking!

Lee Hughes later fired in another good set-up across the Everton goal but Ronnie Wallwork was a yard short and could not convert another glorious chance.  More corners for Everton, an Weir with another glorious header but it was fractionally wide.  Then Rooney danced in front of Hoult, waiting for the perfect moment to slide the ball in for Kevin Campbell to score.  

Rooney managed to get himself booked stupidly for appearing to kick the ball away after he was adjudged to be offside.  Then, a bad back-pass that Rooney pounced on, but his first-time toe-poke went into the side netting.

Weir was pole-axed by a Dichio elbow in midfield but the ref allowed play to go on and West Brom nearly scored again.  Rooney stayed well involved, playing some great moves as Everton pressed but failed to confirm their superiority with more goals, and always looked a uncharacteristically vulnerable in defence. 

The last quarter of the game degenerated somewhat, and was disrupted by a string of substitutions that included Duncan Ferguson getting another 5 mins of football.

West Brom nearly got another penalty in the last few minutes, the ref giving a free-kick right on the edge of the Everton penalty area but Koumas could only drive the ball into the Everton wall and away to safety.

A vital must-win game result secured for Everton, but only through hard graft yet again as Everton battle to stay the course with the other European hopefuls, all of whom won today.