Fulham 1 Everton 0: Numbers no longer add up for weary Everton

The prospect of the People's Club gatecrashing the Champions League aristocracy may now depend on Everton storming Anfield in a fortnight. David Moyes' team were left three points adrift of Liverpool, with a vastly inferior goal difference, after yesterday suffering their first League defeat of 2008.

The result concluded a shattering four days for Everton, who were knocked out of the Uefa Cup, after extra time and on penalties, by Fiorentina on Wednesday. With Moyes lacking the squad strength to freshen his team they looked physically and mentally drained. Although they created the better earlier chances, they had no response to Brian McBride's 67th-minute header.

Victory breathed life into Fulham's fight to avoid relegation. They now trail Birmingham City, who occupy the last survival position, by three points. Birmingham can move clear by beating Newcastle tonight but, with only five points separating Reading, in 14th, and Fulham, in 19th, the relegation scrap is on in earnest.

McBride's goal was the American's first since August when he dislocated his knee in scoring against Middlesbrough. "The most important thing is we won," he said.

Roy Hodgson, the Fulham manager, said: "It was always going to take a little bit of quality and [Simon] Davies and McBride provided that. I was pleased with the players' hunger, appetite, enthusiasm and desire. Morale was low when I got here. It will be anywhere if a team is not winning. Players were starting to hang their heads. Now, if we are to stay up, we have to produce that performance eight more times, five of them away from home. I am fully aware that we have not won away from home this season."

With their next matches at St James' Park and Pride Park, Fulham must have a chance of breaking that duck. They are playing better than their position suggests, not least because McBride and Jimmy Bullard are back from injury, while Hodgson's January signings are settling in.

By contrast, Everton are running out of players. Their substitutes' bench consisted of three full-backs, a goalkeeper, and a rookie midfielder, Jack Rodwell, 17 last week and with three minutes' Premier League playing time behind him. It was not a comforting sight for Moyes when, after just 13 minutes, Andrew Johnson pulled up with a groin strain. Moyes' only solution was to rejig the team into a 4-2-3-1 formation with Leon Osman in the hole. When, after McBride's goal, Everton had to chase the game Moyes was forced to push the left-back Joleon Lescott forward. "When I looked at the bench I feared we would be short," Moyes said. "Squad numbers were tight enough."

If ever there was a match that underlined the value of stability, this was it. Moyes was marking his sixth anniversary as Everton manager. Fulham are on their third manager in a year. The most experienced of the trio, Hodgson has organised the team and got them playing passing football. Everton are similar but the wind wrecked too many moves for the game to flow. Bullard and McBride failed to capitalise on early half-chances but Yakubu, who hit a hat-trick against Fulham in September, was just as wasteful, though at least he made Kasey Keller work in the Fulham goal.

The breakthrough followed an Everton attack that took Tony Hibbert to the byline. His cross came to naught and Fulham countered through Davies down Hibbert's wing. His cross skipped off the head of Joseph Yobo to be converted by McBride. The fault, a lack of covering for Hibbert, can be ascribed to tiredness after Thursday but Moyes was in no mood for excuses. "We should have done much better to stop the goal," he said.

It was the first goal by a Fulham striker since Boxing Day, and only their fourth in nine games, though Eddie Johnson should have improved that record from a couple of late chances.

Everton only once looked like levelling, but Yobo headed wide from a corner. A return to the Uefa Cup now looks likely to be their only reward for a valiant season but Moyes was sanguine. "The players have been excellent. We're just trying to win as many games as we can. I've always said Liverpool were favourites for fourth."

They certainly are now.

Goal: McBride (67) 1-0.

Fulham (4-4-2): Keller; Stalteri, Hughes, Hangeland, Konchesky; Andreasen, Murphy (Bocanegra, 74), Bullard (Volz, 84), Davies; Johnson, McBride (Dempsey, 87). Substitutes not used: Batista (gk), Healy.

Everton (4-4-2): Howard; Neville, Jagielka, Yobo, Lescott; Arteta, Osman, Carsley, Pienaar (Baines, 64); Johnson (Hibbert, 13), Yakubu. Substitutes not used: Wessels (gk), Valente, Rodwell.

Referee: S Bennett (Kent).

Booked: Fulham Murphy.

Man of the match: Bullard.

Attendance: 25,262.

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