It’s one of the most traditional grounds in the league, the home of one of the most traditional football clubs in the league, here then, at Goodison Park, tradition matters.
Obligingly, Everton extended the longest run in league history for consecutive wins in a fixture, besting Fulham to make it eighteen wins in the last eighteen home games against their visitors from North London, climbing to eighth in the ritual.
A trademark of David Moyes side is their ability to thrive in adversity. Stripped of their first team stars and with rumours rife about the future of those key players who remain fit, Everton are managing to hit their best form of the season.
Maybe for this reason, the Everton manager had been loathe to bemoan injuries to key players. But after an opening half hour at Godison which will have had ESPN producers searching frantically for a highlight, even he couldn’t deny that an Everton midfield bereft of Mikel Arteta is one bereft of movement and guile.
Missing the Spaniard’s magic, the creative charge fell to one of the few fit Everton players to still have a trick in his repertoire. To call Leon Osman the wizard’s apprentice would probably be overstepping the mark, but he has always been a useful deputy for Moyes who utilises his loyal midfielder’s invention to aide creativity in the absence of more talented players.
That invention was greatly received by the Gwaldys street end when Osman’s swift drop of the shoulder left Danny Murphy all at sea, his cross was inch perfect for Seamus Coleman who, in an act that defied his inexperience, was the one player in the box not get drawn to the ball. The Irishman applied an astute header into the far corner, and the ESPN team sighed in relief.
Coleman could be forgiven for thinking his run in the first team, for this season at least, may have been coming to its end after a string of demotions to the bench in recent weeks. But the Sligo born full-back, buoyed by his goal, began rekindled the type of form which had seen him become a first team fixture in the first half of the season.
Chalk on his boots and Carlos Salcido flailing in his wake, Coleman’s enthusiasm gave urgency to the otherwise pedestrian play in Everton’s midfield. Jack Rodwell was the first of his teammates to take the cue, his upfield surge was brought cynically to a halt by Dickson Etuhu, who charged the England U-21 man from behind.
Leighton Baines, promoted to free-kick taker in chief in the absence of Arteta, stood menacingly over the ball 25 yards out. But his touch wasn’t the expected curled effort, instead he rolled the ball back for Louis Saha who lashed a low effort under the wall and past Mark Schwarzer to double the Blues lead.
With Fulham looking like feebly succumbing to the overwhelming tradition of this fixture, Mark Hughes introduced Bobby Zamora in a move that got his team back in the game. Damien Duff’s cross was fed into the returning striker and his lay off was perfectly weighted for Clint Dempsey to curl a left footed drive beyond his countryman and give the visitors hope of a recovery.
Aside from a close range Zamora header, the type of a chance match sharp Fulham no. 26 would usually have gobbled up, Everton looked to be getting the better of their nerves. And they might have put the win beyond doubt had Phil Jagielka not been denied a goal to mark his new contract with, by Salcido who nodded his goalbound header off the line.
David Moyes’ team resisted one familiarity of their Goodison Park game by refusing to sit deep on their lead. But as the Scot organised his defence to close out the win, another unwelcome, yet just as familiar quirk of his side played out in the dying minutes when Louis Saha was stretchered off after falling awkwardly from an aerial challenge.
David Moyes confirmed his premier striker would undergo an X-Ray before the club could know the full extent of his injury.
He said: “He had a bit of a hamstring problem and I was just about substitute him just before he went up for the header.
“But he’s landed heavily on his ankle, we’ll get him X-rayed and see how he is.”
The win marks a full circle for Moyes who began his 9 nine year tenure with a 2-1 win over Fulham, the Blues boss said the club has come a long way since then and can continue to look upward.
He said: “Most years at Everton we’ve been up there, and we’ve got no real reason to look down, but, unfortunately, the form we’ve been in has made us think we might have to. But we’re grinding our way out of it.
“The international break means we’ll have played one game in 21 days, but hopefully it’ll give me a chance to give some players like Sylvain Distin, who has played every game, a bit of time off to recharge his batteries.”
Moyes said he was encouraged by the performance of Seamus Coleman who he said has struck up a real chord with supporters.
“It’s been a long season for him and he’s been up and down, but again he showed me good signs today. I thought he guided his header brilliantly in the far corner.
“Supporters want to see people who play with less inhibitions and he does that.”
Everton now look forward to a kind run of fixtures against Aston Villa, Wolves and Blackburn and with the last European place nine points away after Tottenham stumbled at home to strugglers West Ham.
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Everton (4-5-1): Howard, Hibbert, Distin, Jagielka, Baines, Neville, Rodwell (Bilyaletdinov 78), Osman, Coleman, Cahill (Heitinga 69) Saha (Beckford 86)
Subs: Mucha, Heitinga Bilyaletdinov, Beckford, Gueye, Anichebe, Baxter
Fulham (4-4-2): Schwarzer, Salcido, Hangeland, Baird, Johnson (Gudjohnson 84), Murphy, Duff (Kakuta 75), Hughes, Etuhu (Zamora 60), Dempsey, Dembele
Subs: Stockdale, Kelly, Gudjohnsen, Kakuta, Zamora, Greening, Davies
Goals: Coleman 39, Saha 49, Dempsey 62
Yellow: Osman 55, Hibbert 63
Red:
Ref: M. Oliver
Att: 33,239
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