Radzinski digs dogged Everton out of danger

Pretty it was not, but Everton duly eased away from the bottom three of the Premiership yesterday with a hard-fought home win over Aston Villa. Almost 80 minutes had expired before Tomasz Radzinski, introduced as a substitute midway through the second half, set his team on their way to a first win in eight League games. Thomas Gravesen added a second shortly later to send Villa home with nothing to show from a game in which they appeared the more purposeful team for long periods.

Surprisingly, David O'Leary, the Villa manager, was quick to criticise his players. "Everton had more hunger and desire than us," he said. "We knew they would come at us in the second half and we didn't deal with it. We're not good enough to turn up and play like that and expect to come away with anything from the game."

For David Moyes, the Everton manager, it illustrated the value of being able to call on substitutes who can change the course of a match. "We've got strikers who are capable of doing different things, and they can all win us games," he said.

The recent form of Wayne Rooney and Duncan Ferguson meant that Radzinski, along with Kevin Campbell, again had to start on the bench. Together they comprise a pool of strikers that is surely the envy of every other manager in the bottom half of the Premiership.

Having conceded 10 goals in the three games prior to yesterday's, Moyes was just as pleased with the clean sheet. "It means you've always got a chance," he said. "We've been behind too often this season. But we kept going and we got what we deserved in the end. It was never a classic, but the first goal gave us the confidence that we needed."

In the early stages, Villa sat deep and waited for Everton attacks to flounder, before breaking with fluidity through the likes of the Peruvian Nolberto Solano. With Everton struggling to find any penetration, it was almost half an hour before either side came close to scoring. Rooney drew a cheap foul from Ronny Johnsen on the edge of the penalty area, from where Ferguson's free-kick wrong-footed Thomas Sorensen but flew over the bar. Kevin Kilbane then failed to take advantage of the best chance of the half, his glancing header floating just wide of the post.

A deflected drive from Solano and a bobbled close-range shot from Darius Vassell were the closest Villa came, despite their superior approach play, as they finished the half the stronger team.

Vassell should have given Villa the lead within a minute of the restart. Unfortunately, his finish was as messy as the stuttering build-up, and Nigel Martyn was able to turn his shot over the bar.

More by force of will than anything else, Everton continued to push forward, with Radzinski introduced to supplement the two strikers. It proved to be an inspired change. As the game drifted towards an unsatisfactory stalemate, the Canadian beat Sorensen to Rooney's menacing right-wing cross and headed into the unguarded net beyond for his seventh goal of the season.

Villa's interest in the game was effectively ended moments later when Gravesen, who had hitherto endured a torrid afternoon, atoned for earlier shortcomings by sliding a low shot into the bottom corner from 12 yards.

Everton 2 Aston Villa 0
Radzinski 78, Gravesen 84

Half-time: 0-0 Attendance: 39,353