West Ham 1 Everton 2

Goals from Louis Saha and Dan Gosling condemned the Irons to yet another pointless afternoon and although they produced a late rally the overall performance demonstrated their over-reliance on Carlton Cole, missing yesterday due to a hamstring injury.

Injury-ravaged Everton even contributed West Ham's goal when Tony Hibbert somehow contrived to put the ball into his own net when it seemed easier to clear Zavon Hines's weak shot.

A propensity to give away soft goals is exacerbated by an inability to score at the other end has seen the Irons struggle all season.

Even when they were pepped up by the introduction of Alessandro Diamanti, whose through ball allowed Hines to hit the shot that Hibbert converted, failed to produce the goal thrust the fans demanded.

A poor first half, which West Ham dominated but never created a worthwhile scoring opportunity, was punctuated by Saha's 27th minute goal.

There was no obvious danger as the ball was played up to Tim Cahill on the edge of the Hammers' box as the Australian midfielder was surrounded by defenders.

But Cahill managed to lay the ball off to Saha, who struck an excellent left-foot shot into the bottom corner, leaving Robert Green motionless.

Everton, themselves desperate for points after a poor start to the season, celebrated with gusto and battled hard to preserve their lead.

Indeed the Merseysiders picked up five bookings as they fought for every ball for the full 90 minutes.

West Ham looked bereft of ideas, too often thumping the ball forward where their diminutive front line of Hines and Guillermo Franco had no chance against Everton's towering central defenders Joseph Yobo and Sylvain Distin.

And the visitors doubled their lead when Gosling found himself in acres of space in the West Ham box on 64 minutes.

His initial shot was well saved by Green but the rebound came straight back to the youngster and he blasted it home.

West Ham responded immediately when Diamanti played a lovely through-ball for Hines to latch onto. He lifted his shot over Howard and as it rolled slowly goalward Hibbert, rushing back, could only scoop it into the net.

The goal galvanised West Ham and they began to show more positive spirit, with Diamanti the key figure.

He produced the best moment when his 75th minute free kick, from all of 30 yards, was pushed away by Howard.

David Moyes brought on ex-West Ham captain Lucas Neill, who was roundly jeered by the unforgiving home support, and his experience helped bolster the Everton back-line, restricting the Irons to speculative long-range efforts for the last 15 minutes.

Unlike against Aston Villa four days earlier West Ham could not conjure a late goal and were consigned to their third home league defeat of the season.

Zola will be grateful for the international break to allow his key players to recover and hopefully have Cole back to spearhead the attack in what are already looking to be relegation six-pointers against Hull and Burnley in their next two games.

West Ham: Green, Faubert, Spector, Upson, Da Costa, Parker, Collison (Stanislas, 45), Behrami, Jiminez (Diamanti, 57), Hines, Franco. Unused subs: Kurucz, Kovac, Noble, Tomkins, Daprela.

Goal: Hibbert og 65

Everton: Howard, Hibbert, Baines, Yobo, Distin, Heitinga, Cahill, Rodwell, Gosling (Neill, 76), Saha (Yakubu, 57), Fallaini. Unused subs: Nash, Coleman, Agard, Baxter, Wallace.

Booked: Hibbert, Fellaini, Rodwell, Heitinga, Yakubu.

Goals: Saha 27, Gosling 64

Attendance: 32,466

Referee: Alan Wiley