Everton vs West Ham - The Reviews

Perhaps not surprisingly, most of the newspapers seem more concerned with Everton's blowing of their Champions League hopes than with appraising yesterday's game. Again, not surprisingly, Tomkin's debut and mistake for the first goal is mentioned in most of the reports. Dean Ashton seems to receive the highest praise of the West Ham players.

The Daily Mail say that "Anton Ferdinand was not the steadying influence" on Tomkins that he should have been. They claim that "Sears ... is a far more popular figure than ... misfit Luis Boa Morte." Despite making the early pressure The Mail conclude that "Everton were kept on the back foot for long periods."

The Telegraph are not great fans of West Ham's system. "The make-up of West Ham's five-man midfield meant they looked comfortable in possession but they rarely got within 50 yards of Howard's goal." They name Ashton as the man of the match and say his "powerful header for West Ham's equaliser was just reward for his great work-rate."

The Guardian run with the weirdest football report I have ever read, spending most of the article trying to compare Moyes with Foggy from Last of the Summer Wine. They end the article with a tiny bit about the game, "West Ham were a total shambles for the first 25-30 minutes, then Everton took the baton of uselessness and ran with it. On the flip side, there were some pretty decent performances from the strikers: Yakubu and Ashton both scored, while Sears and Anichebe impressed."

The Independent were impressed with Ashton and felt he scored a "terrific goal". The Times, on the other hand, call Ashton 'industrious' and "the game’s pivotal figure." They say that "on the break, the Hammers fought tenaciously." They name Ashton as their 'star man'.