The boos at the final whistle were quieter following the recent revival, but it was clear that all is not well in the East End.

As usual West Ham had the bulk of the possession, and as usual they created little more than half chances.

On the counter, Everton looked lively but not even the introduction of the latest teen genius Wayne Rooney looked likely to save this match from goalless obscurity.

But then a break down the left saw David Unsworth deliver a deep cross which should have been comfortably cleared by the Hammers.

Instead, Scott Minto allowed Carsley to get ahead of him at the back post and thumped a header past David James to settle the issue on 70 minutes.

Only then did the Irons raise the tempo and start to look threatening. Had they played the first 20 minutes as they played the last it is hard to see how they could have fallen behind.

Substitute Edouard Cisse's wicked cross was headed just over by Trevor Sinclair, then Joe Cole took over.

On 81 minutes he singlehandedly tore apart the defence, twisting and battling past Joseph Yobo and Tony Hibbert to get to the byline and cut back for a shot on goal.

That was cleared for a corner: the first of three which saw both Cole and Carrick cause chaos with long range efforts.

As the pressure built up, Richard Wright almost fumbled a routine catch into the path of Jermain Defoe and Titi Camara - on in place of Minto - sliced through the defence to tee up his strike partner for another wasted chance.

Published Monday October 28, 2002

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