This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/13/west-brom-everton-premier-league-match-report

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Everton’s Romelu Lukaku off the mark in win at West Bromwich Albion Everton’s Romelu Lukaku off the mark in win at West Bromwich Albion
(about 5 hours later)
It is easy to see why Alan Irvine has pleaded for time. Four matches into the season and West Bromwich Albion find themselves second from bottom after once again pressing the self-destruct button. Irvine, who had three spells at Everton, knew that he would get no favours from his former employers here, but the Albion head coach was entitled to expect more from a couple of his players. It is easy to see why Alan Irvine has pleaded for time, but patience is already wearing thin at The Hawthorns. A second successive Premier League defeat, marked by two calamitous individual mistakes, was the cue for boos to reverberate at the final whistle, as the West Bromwich Albion supporters vented their anger.
Jonas Olsson made a poor mistake in the lead up to Romelu Lukaku’s opening goal – the striker’s first since his £28m transfer to Everton in the summer – and keeper Ben Foster gifted the visitors a second, after allowing a soft shot from Kevin Mirallas to slip under him. With a number of Albion supporters opposed to his appointment – and so many new players to bed in after a chaotic summer – it already looks like being a long winter for Irvine at The Hawthorns. Boos reverberated at the final whistle. An unpopular appointment when he was named as Pepe Mel’s replacement – and tasked with the considerable job of rebuilding the team after a chaotic summer in which 13 players left and 11 arrived – Irvine has his work cut out. An already difficult job was made harder still here, after Jonas Olsson and Ben Foster pressed the self-destruct button, gifting Everton both goals.
For Everton, the emotions at the end were very different. This was their first league victory of the season and was just the tonic they needed after their 6-3 home defeat by Chelsea. Lukaku, their marquee signing, is up and running, the defence kept a clean sheet after conceding 10 times in the previous three matches, and but for a couple of late saves from Foster – who twice denied the substitute Leon Osman – the margin of victory would have been wider. Romelu Lukaku, returning to the club where he enjoyed such a productive season-long loan in 2012-13, scored Everton’s first after only 100 seconds, when he punished Olsson’s dreadful clearance – the second game running that the Swede has handed the opposition a goal inside two minutes. Kevin Mirallas then grabbed the second, after keeper Foster allowed the winger’s tame shot to slip under his body.
For the second game running Albion conceded inside two minutes and, once again, Olsson was at fault. The Swede, who had slipped in the area to gift Nathan Dyer an early goal in the 3-0 defeat at Swansea, was guilty of a woeful clearance from Leighton Baines’s low cross. Lukaku, lurking on the edge of the penalty area, took a touch before curling a sumptuous right-footed shot beyond Foster and into the far corner. Up against the club where he spent three spells – as a player, assistant manager and academy director – Irvine knew that he would get no favours. What the Scot could never have imagined, however, was that his players would be such a danger to their own team.
It was Lukaku’s 33rd Premier League goal but, incredibly, the first time he has scored for a club that owns him. Seventeen of those goals were scored for Albion in 2012-13, which was clearly playing on the Belgium international’s mind when the Everton players ran over to mob him. Lukaku, holding his hands together, apologised to the Albion supporters and received a round of applause in return. Albion huffed and puffed in response to falling behind, but never really looked like recovering once Mirallas had doubled Everton’s lead, on a highly satisfactory afternoon for Roberto Martínez and his players.
The home fans would have preferred to have been clapping some action at the other end of the pitch, but Albion huffed and puffed without success in the first half. Saido Berahino’s shot was deflected over by John Stones, who started at centre-back in place of the injured Sylvain Distin, and Chris Brunt, with an angled drive, struck the side-netting, but that was as good as it got for an Albion side short of ideas and creativity. Coming into this game on the back of 6-3 home defeat by Chelsea, Everton departed celebrating a first victory of the season, and a much-needed first clean sheet. There was also the sight of Lukaku registering his first goal since his club-record £28m move from Chelsea. It was the striker’s 33rd Premier League goal in all – but, incredibly, the first time he has scored for a club that owns him.
Everton should have doubled their lead early in the second half. Stepping around Olsson with alarming ease, Lukaku unleashed a powerful left-footed shot from 20 yards out that Foster, diving low to his left, did well to repel with one hand. Reacting quickly to the loose ball, and fortunate that the assistant referee failed to notice that he was offside, Steven Naismith looked destined to score for the fourth match running, only to lift the ball over the bar. How Albion must wish that the Belgium international was still leading their line. Instead, Irvine was left to reflect on the absence of a cutting edge up front, and the two defining moments in the match, when his players made the sort of errors that any coach or manager is powerless to do anything about.
If that was a reprieve for Albion, they were not so fortunate in the 66th minute. There seemed to be little danger when Mirallas, picking up possession from Baines, cut in from the left before striking a low shot that Foster had covered at the near post. At least that seemed to be the case. Somehow, Foster managed to dive over the ball, allowing what was a tame effort to slip under him and into the back of the net. From that point on there was no way back for Albion. “You’re talking about two international players – two proven Premier League players – and they don’t normally make those kind of mistakes,” Irvine said. “For us to make one, let alone two in the same game, is unusual. The lads are devastated with the goals, but mistakes happen. We just have to accept them and move on.”
Asked about the fans’ reaction at the end, Irvine said: “I understand it. We’re all frustrated, we all came here today hoping that we were going to get a really good performance and a really good result, so I can understand the fans being frustrated and disappointed – because it’s how I feel as well and it’s how the players feel.
“They know that for a fair part of that game they were playing well, and they know that individual errors have cost them.”
As much as Olsson was culpable for the first goal – when he made a pig’s ear of trying to clear a cross from Leighton Baines – there was much to admire about the way Lukaku curled a sumptuous shot, from the edge of the area, into the far corner. What followed was not so much a muted celebration as a full-on apology, prompting a round of applause from the Albion supporters.
Martínez was just delighted to see the ball hit the net. “He is only a young man, but we didn’t mind the [transfer] sum because I knew it was money well spent,” the Everton manager said.
Steven Naismith should have doubled Everton’s lead early in the second half, but he lifted the ball over the bar after Foster had repelled Lukaku’s raking drive. However, it was only a temporary reprieve for Albion. Mirallas, cutting in from the left in the 66th minute, struck a low shot that Foster seemed to have covered – until he dived over the top of the ball.
The Albion keeper did make a couple of fine saves to thwart Leon Osman late on, but, by then, the damage was done.