MAN CITY 0 - 2 EVERTON

Manchester City 0
Everton 2 (Yakubu, Lescott)
Yak bags another to ensure crucial away win
By Daniel Gregory 25/02/08

Goals from Yakubu and Joleon Lescott gave Everton a crucial 2-1 win against Man City at Eastlands.

David Moyes went with a five-man midfield, leaving Andy Johnson on the bench despite his brace in the week against SK Brann. The move paid dividends as Everton controlled large periods of the game, dictating the midfield and restricting Sven Goran-Eriksson's men to a handful of late chances.

Yakubu opened the scoring after 25 minutes with a composed finish from Steven Pienaar's well directed cross, after a neat move through the midfield. With Phil Jagielka and Joseph Yobo in fine form at the back for the blues, City found it hard to break through and rarely threatened Tim Howard.

The lead was doubled when Lescott headed home with a well angled effort from Lee Carsley's deep cross, giving Joe Hart in the City goal no chance.

City tried to freshen things up at the break by introducing Elano in the midfield, but the Brazilian struggled to get any rythym throughout and looked jaded for the most part of his 45 minutes in the game.

Referee Rob Styles turned down two penalty appeals, both for hand balls, before Lee Carsley's quickly taken free kick brought out a fantastic full length save by Hart, who had to be on his toes to keep out the rasping drive.

City threw countless men forward in search of a way back into the game, but they found a resolute Everton defence, intent on keeping another clean sheet. Lescott, Yobo and Jagielka made important blocks in the dying stages to keep the score at 2-0, before Tim Howard was called into action to keep Mexican Nery Castillo's curling effort out.

City were reduced to ten men when Martin Petrov was given his marching orders for two blatant kicks at Yakubu and Osman. Despite the introduction of the tricky Castillo, City failed to break the Everton defence down, with Benjani spurning the best opportunity, heading straight at Howard.

Everton now move back above Liverpool into 4th place, and go six points clear of City, who are also chasing European qualification.

EVERTON (Marks out of ten)
Howard (8) Hibbert (7) Yobo (9) Jagielka (9) Lescott (9) Neville (8) Carsley (8) Pienaar (7) Cahill (7) Osman (8) Yakubu (8) Subs: Fernandes (5) Johnson (7)

Man of the match: Phil Jagielka.