JUST AS West Ham have made a recent disastrous habit of giving away vital goals late in the game, so Everton have made a remarkable habit of scoring them. At Bolton it was Marouane Fellaini who scored the winner in the 90th minute. Next, Louis Saha got the winner at Goodison against Fulham after 87 minutes. Then, to cap it all, there were yesterday’s three goals in the final seven minutes to deflate West Ham.

It is always dangerous for any team to dominate a match without scoring, as West Ham did in the first half. They did finally take the lead after 18 minutes of the second, and victory seemed surely to be theirs. Everton, after all, had played into their hands with their unadventurous formation, fielding two strikers, yet using one of them, Victor Anichebe, seriously wide on the right wing.

It was not until Everton belatedly brought on another striker after 65 minutes – the lively James Vaughan – that the match changed, with the visitors now looking for goals, and in the final seven minutes finding no fewer than three of them. It was harsh on West Ham’s Craig Bellamy, fairly fizzing with energy and enterprise, time and again troubling Everton’s defence in the first half, while the departure of West Ham centre-half Matthew Upson after 17 minutes proved expensive in the end.

Only a magnificent save by Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard prevented the Hammers going ahead after 30 minutes. The whole sequence was a coruscating one. Bellamy whirled with great skill past Joseph Yobo on the left, found West Ham’s young striker Freddie Sears at point-blank range only for Howard, with a leap and an outstretched hand, to turn the ball on to and over the crossbar.

After 43 minutes Sears missed the palpable chance which could have sent the Hammers into the interval a goal up. The ball fell to Luis Boa Morte on the right. He advanced and found Sears who, by the right-hand post, somehow contrived to shoot wide.

There was still little or no attacking from Everton, and on 63 minutes the always lively and intelligent Scott Parker burst through for West Ham and found the 20-year-old substitute Jack Collison, who had come on for Upson, and he scored from the edge of the area into the top right corner.

After that, especially following Vaughan’s introduction, West Ham’s pressure distinctly eased. They had a warning on 74 minutes when Phil Jagielka crossed from the left, Joleon Lescott flicked on and Vaughan sent his header narrowly wide of the left-hand post. On 80 minutes, the resilient Howard dived bravely at Bellamy’s flying feet. But three minutes later came Everton’s equaliser, with two more goals still to come in the subsequent four minutes.

First, with the Hammers defence strangely negligent, Saha found space on the right and had time to control and release the ball for Lescott to score with a near-post header. Two minutes more and Phil Neville and Anichebe set up Saha on the right to score in off the far post. That was bad, even shocking enough, for West Ham, but on 87 minutes, when Saha shot from a 25 yards out, Robert Green let the ball fly past him.

“Did I expect it?” reflected Everton manager David Moyes, “Probably not. We got a result; it didn’t look like it for a long period. West Ham played very well in the first half, the second half we played better.

“We were just starting to show signs, then we lose the goal, then I thought we had to get after them.”

Delighted with Saha and his goals, he said: “Louis Saha is someone who has missed a lot of football. We knew what he could do. He has missed no training. What he probably missed was regular games.”

The disappointed West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola said: “What can I say, it is very difficult to explain. It is not the first time we were spoiling a good job in the last 10 minutes, and that is something that concerns me. To give you an explanation right now is very difficult. Something has to be looked at very carefully in a very deep way. The only thing I can say right now is that we have to find a solution.

“It’s really a pity that we have to spoil a good job in the last 10 minutes and it isn’t the first time it has happened.”

WEST HAM: Green 6, Neill 7, Collins 6, Upson 6 (Collison 17min, 6), Ilunga 7, Faubert 6, Parker 7 (Di Michele 87min), Bowyer 6, Boa Morte 6 (Etherington 57min, 6), Sears 7, Bellamy 8

EVERTON: Howard 8, Neville 6, Yobo 6, Jagielka 7, Lescott 7, Anichebe 6 (Baines 86min), Osman 6, Rodwell 6 (Vaughan 65min), Cahill 6, Arteta 6, Saha 7 (Hibbert 90min)

Star man: Craig Bellamy (West Ham)

Yellow cards: West Ham: Etherington Everton: Lescott

Referee: M Halsey

Attendance: 33,961

LEAVING IT LATE

Liverpool and Arsenal share the distinction of having scored the most goals in the last 10 minutes of Premier League matches this season

Arsenal 7
Liverpool 7
Blackburn Rovers 5
Everton 5
Middlesbrough 5
Tottenham Hotspur 5
Sunderland 4