Fulham’s Goodison Park hoodoo continues as the Whites’ four match unbeaten run came to an abrupt end as Everton triumphed 4-0 on Saturday afternoon.

Fulham made one change to the side that defeated Wigan Athletic a week ago as Kerim Frei was handed a starting berth, with Danny Murphy dropping to the bench. Manager Martin Jol did not travel to Goodison Park owing to a contagious chest infection, so Michael Lindeman and Billy McKinlay took charge of first team affairs for the game.

With just six minutes on the clock Everton were awarded a penalty after Pavel Pogrebnyak was alleged to have handled when Nikica Jelavic blasted a free-kick goalwards. The Croatian stepped up and sent Mark Schwarzer the wrong way to give the home side an early lead.

Fulham’s first foray towards the Everton goal came on 11 minutes with Mousa Dembele and Frei exchanging passes before the diminutive Swiss youngster fizzed a powerful drive goalwards that needed Tim Howard’s fingertips to force a corner.

In what was an open game, Everton almost doubled their lead on the quarter of an hour mark when Jelavic found himself in space inside the Fulham area but, fortunately for the Whites, his shot from an acute angle struck the post and rebounded away.

Everton only needed another minute to find the back of the net though as Marouane Fellaini scored a second headed goal against the White in as many games when he leapt highest to head home Steven Pienaar’s corner.

Fulham came within a whisker of halving the deficit with half an hour gone but found Tim Howard in inspired form. Clint Dempsey worked space for himself just inside the area and hit a powerful shot which took a wicked deflection of John Heitinga and was looping in but for the acrobatics of Howard who just managed to tip the ball onto the top of the crossbar.

The game was a relatively even contest but Everton took a flattering three goal lead on 40 minutes when Jelavic fired through Schwarzer’s legs for his second of the game to leave Fulham with a huge mountain to climb.

The second half started slowly but Everton got their fourth with the first real chance just before the hour mark. A lovely passing move ended with Tim Cahill, a replacement for the booked Darron Gibson, being played through and the Australian was able to poke the ball beyond his compatriot in the Fulham goal.

Five minutes later and Jelavic was denied a hat-trick by an excellent Schwarzer stop as the Fulham custodian was at full stretch to tip the Croatian’s bending free-kick away. Schwarzer had to be on alert again on 80 minutes to push away Pienaar’s drive from distance, before Leon Osman drew another good save from our number one moments later.

With Everton content to keep possession, the remainder of the match petered out with no further incident of note as Fulham’s wait for a Goodison Park victory continues.

 

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