THE sight of Phil Jagielka struggling out on crutches before kick-off to receive a player-of-the-season award from disabled fans was a poignant reminder of how Everton’s season has been blighted by injuries to key players, notably playmaker Mikel Arteta and striker Yakubu Ayegbeni.

So manager David Moyes will be delighted that centre-forward Louis Saha, who sometimes gives the impression that his hands have to be prised from the edges of the treatment table, is back in scoring form in time for the FA Cup final against Chelsea on Saturday week.

When it comes to a journey to restore the health of an injury-prone player, Wembley has always been a more reliable destination than Lourdes. And although Saha’s first goal in 10 games came from the penalty spot after a controversial decision that saw West Ham’s James Tomkins sent off, it will have done as much for his confidence as a 30-yard screamer. Saha’s second, a two-yard rocket from Steven Pienaar’s cross, will have him straining at the lease to get at John Terry and Co.

Saha would probably have been climbing into the Gwladys Street End if Robert Green had not brilliantly clawed away a hat-trick attempt. Moyes sensibly took Saha off before he could get too giddy, which also allowed him a standing ovation. Applause being addictive, he returned for the team’s lap of honour.

Moyes was beginning to wonder where the next goal was coming from after seeing his side fail to score in three of their previous five games, one of them a 120-minute marathon against Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-final. Yet with James Vaughan replacing Saha in the 80th minute for only his third appearance since recovering from injury, he is no longer hamstrung (a word that will make him wince).

“It’s a credit to the players that they played so well today when there was a temptation to take it easy before the final,” Moyes said. “Saha’s contribution was good and it gives me options. But I am picking players to win games, not to try them out for Wembley.”

His team are now sure to finish at least sixth. As Moyes said, “I would have taken that at the start of the season.” Defeat ended West Ham’s hopes of claiming a place in the inaugural Europa League, which many of their fans would regard as a right result, seeing that the format seems to require participants to play hundreds of games just to reach the last 32.

But they looked good for at least a point until 20-year-old centre-half Tomkins was sent off for bringing down Tim Cahill in the area just before half-time. Referee Phil Dowd will doubtless take a leaf from the book of Westminster’s right honourable members by claiming that he was only acting within the rules, but it seemed an offence against the spirit of the law to send off a talented youngster making his 16th start.

Hammers manager Gianfranco Zola said the red card changed the game. “I thought it would maybe have been fairer to give a penalty and a yellow card. It is painful but something I have to accept. Failing to get into Europe does not take anything away from our season. I am very pleased and proud to be manager of this team, and I have promised them that next season we will be much better.”

The penalty, dispatched by Saha into the bottom of the corner, should have been punishment enough. That squared the game after West Ham had taken the lead through an unlikely source in Radoslav Kovac, making only his eighth league appearance since arriving on loan from Spartak Moscow in January.

Although playing in the holding role, Kovac obviously understands the West Ham ethic that no player is exempt from attacking duties, scoring his first in claret and blue with a 35-yard strike that swerved left, then right, past Tim Howard. Kovac walked back nonchalantly, as though it was something he does all the time, before throwing himself into the path of a Leighton Baines free kick.

Even after the dismissal and a second goal from Everton centre-half Joseph Yobo, West Ham stayed true to those attacking traditions, substitute Carlton Cole picking out Luis Boa Morte with a 30-yard crossfield ball. Boa Morte did it no justice with a fluffed kick.

Everton fans continually chanted Jagielka’s name. But after a first goal of the season by Yobo, his replacement, supporters sensed strikes from everywhere, even screaming at Phil Neville to shoot whenever he got close to the penalty area, even though he had scored just once in his Premier League career.

Star man: Louis Saha (Everton)

Yellow cards: Everton: Baines West Ham: Spector, Boa Morte

Red card: West Ham: Tomkins

Referee: P Dowd

Attendance: 38,501

EVERTON: Howard 6, Jacobsen 6, Yobo 7, Lescott 7, Baines 6, Neville 6, Osman 7, Cahill 7 (Jo 90min), Pienaar 7, Fellaini 6 (Rodwell 68min) Saha 7 (Vaughan 80min)

WEST HAM UNITED: Green 7, Ilunga 6, Upson 6, Tomkins 6, Neill 6, Kovac 7 (Satislas 68min), Collison 6, Noble 7, Boa Morte 5, Di Michele 5 (Spector, h-t, 6), Tristan5 (Cole, h-t, 7)