Moyes pleased as injury hit Everton see off struggling West Ham

EVERTON boss David Moyes hailed his patched-up side after yesterday’s 2-0 win over West Ham in the Premiership.

Moyes had seen his side decimated by a trio of last-ditch injuries in training which forced him into a roll-call a couple of hours before the Goodison Park match to decide who was fit to play.

Already without Tim Cahill, Alessandro Pistone, Paddy Boyle and Gary Naysmith, Moyes said: “It was like a casualty ward after training yesterday.

“Victor Anichebe damaged his knee and Phil Neville and Mikel Arteta suffered injuries within 60 seconds of each other.

“Neville has a knee problem but Arteta kicked the ground and has damaged his shin and ankle. He will have an X-ray in the morning, but could be out for a couple of weeks.”

Moyes continued: ‘‘Considering those problems I was very pleased with the result, if not always the performance. It was a patched-up outfit with players out of position.

“But that was just the result we needed after a couple of setbacks in recent weeks. We worked hard, played as a team and stood up to everything West Ham threw at us.”

Everton won with second-half strikes by Leon Osman – on his 100th appearance for the club – and an injury-time strike from substitute James Vaughan.

West Ham striker Carlos Tevez was outstanding and was denied by Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard twice.

Hammers boss Alan Pardew, whose side have now lost nine successive away games, said: “We had a similar game recently at Middlesbrough where we did well and couldn’t score. But we better than that here.

“We had a dozen corners in the first half, looked like we were going to score, but that has been the story of our season on the road.

“We don’t seem to be able to give ourselves a cushion. We conceded the first goal again and were chasing the game again.

“I cannot fault our application or effort. We must keep our heads up because we have a very important game now on Wednesday at home to Wigan.

“When you cannot get away points it puts you under pressure at home to claw those points back.”

He added: “I believe it is now more than 10 hours since we scored an away goal in the Premiership, and that is a concern.

“All you can do is pepper the target like we did, and hope one soon goes in.

“David Moyes almost apologised to me at the end, he maybe feels he got a victory out of nothing.”

Opta Fact: Leon Osman scored on his 100th appearance for Everton.

Opta Fact: The Hammers haven’t scored in the last 618 minutes of Premiership football away from home.

EVERTON: Howard, Yobo, Stubbs, Lescott, Nuno Valente, Van der Meyde (Vaughan 72), Osman (Weir 82), Carsley, McFadden, Johnson, Beattie (Hughes 90).

WEST HAM: Green, Spector (Mascherano 84), Ferdinand, Collins, Konchesky, Bowyer (Sheringham 69), Mullins, Reo-Coker, Etherington, Zamora (Harewood 69), Tevez.

Referee: M Atkinson (W Yorkshire).