The lessons are coming hard and fast for Gianfranco Zola and practice is not making them any easier for the West Ham United manager to understand. One point from the past six matches has blotted his copybook and by the drawn look on his face, defeat by Everton after excelling for 80 minutes was as painful and demoralising as it gets for a man learning his trade.

It has not taken long for West Ham to adopt Zola’s pleasing, silky style. However, the Italian promised to find a solution to what is becoming a habit of conceding late goals. Everton, who had barely ventured into the opposition penalty area, turned the game with three goals in the last seven minutes.

It left the Italian questioning whether he should have introduced fresh legs in central midfield as his team dropped deep, while they have not kept a clean sheet in the league since February. “They let the tension grow and lost composure,” Zola said.

“If we lost another game, then probably I have got my responsibilities and I take them. If I’ve done something wrong I will tell the players.”

Zola’s route into management on the back of a distinguished playing career is the opposite to that of David Moyes, a nononsense journeyman defender who learnt his coaching trade at Preston North End before stepping up to Everton. “When you come into management it is very difficult to understand how bad you feel after a bad result,” Moyes said. “I thought losing might become an easier thing as you got older and you would be able to manage it better. It gets worse.”

Jack Collison confidently stroked West Ham into the lead, but Moyes’s gamble with attacking substitutions paid off when Louis Saha crossed for an unmarked Joleon Lescott to head an equaliser and the France forward then scored twice, with a deflected strike and from long range.

West Ham United (4-4-1-1): R Green 5 – L Neill 5, J Collins 6, M Upson (sub: J Collison, 19min 7), H Ilunga 6 – J Faubert 5, L Bowyer 5 (sub: M Etherington, 59 5), S Parker 7 (sub: D Di Michele, 87) – C Bellamy 7 – F Sears 7. Substitutes not used: J Lastuvka, W Lopez, H Mullins, K Reid. Booked: Etherington. Next: Portsmouth (h).

Everton (4-2-3-1): T Howard 5 – P Neville 6, J Yobo 6, P Jagielka 5, J Lescott 6 – L Osman 5, J Rodwell 5 (sub: J Vaughan, 66 6) – V Anichebe 6 (sub: L Baines, 86), T Cahill 5, M Arteta 5 – L Saha 7 (sub: T Hibbert, 90). Substitutes not used: C Nash, S Castillo, L Jutkiewicz, D Gosling. Booked: Lescott. Next: Middlesbrough (h).

Referee M Halsey Attendance 33,961