Everton 0-2 Fulham: Premier League - as it happened

And that is that. What a great effort from Fulham. The neutrals might have liked to see ein Schuss wie ein Strich - because neither goal was spectacular - but Fulham won’t care about that. What a superb win for Scott Parker and his men - their first league win at Goodison Park. Can they pull off an incredible escape? Work to do for Everton, on the other hand. Thanks for reading, thanks for all the emails, and see you next time. Bye for now.

Everton’s Carlo Ancelotti has a chat: “Today was not good. We had problems everywhere. They put a lot of pressure on us... we were not able to build up properly, I think we were affected on the physical aspect, because they played with a lot of intensity, and we were not able to manage this.

“We were not able to do what we prepared. The physical aspect [after the game midweek] affected us a lot, I think. It’s an unpredictable season, we lost a lot of games at home, and we won a lot of games away ... we will try to be better on Wednesday.”

That Scott Parker interview, via the magic of video:

The Fulham manager, Scott Parker, speaks: “I thought from start to finish today we were superb, really. Everything about us, the way we went about it, large parts of the game, we had a real control about us ... the difference today was we put the ball in the net ... I keep saying about the fine margins - I keep saying to this team, you can’t keep on producing what we are producing without it turning a little bit. I said in the week, I’d be more concerned if we weren’t getting the chances ... today we managed to put those chances away. So I’m very, very pleased.

“We’ve got a real belief ... we’ve got a real identity with the way we play. Of course, you get to half time - we had a few chances in the first half and not managed to put the ball in the net, but in the second half we got our noses in front, and we got another superb goal after that. Overall I’m very, very pleased with the team.

“People told me we’d not done too well over the history of playing here. It’s an irrelevance, really. The team produced a performance with how I know we can play. This is a big, big win for us ... I see a team moving in the right direction. I’m absolutely delighted [for Josh Maja] ... a big, big performance from him, he’s a young boy still ... he’s done fantastic today and he deserved his two goals.”

Andy Hunter’s report from Goodison Park is right here:

Speaking on BT Sport, Fulham’s two-goal hero Josh Maja is asked what a big win that is for Fulham: “It’s a big one ... we came into the game wanting to win ... we haven’t had the results we wanted in the last few games, and our performances didn’t deserve that. But today, we put in a great performance, and obviously we got the win, which we’re very happy with. We took the chances when they came ... we’re happy, and we want to continue like this. For the whole 90 minutes we worked hard, the guys gave everything.

“This is a night I’ve been dreaming about for a very long time ... I had a feeling that this was coming, and I’m glad that it became a reality. Wins give the fans and players confidence and we want to take that into the next games.”

Everton stay seventh, while Fulham stay 18th, but instead of being 10 points behind Newcastle, the gap is cut to seven. Reaction coming up.

Fulham’s next two Premier League matches are Burnley away and Sheffield United at home. Going to Burnley won’t be easy, but playing as well as that, they will be confident. As touched on below, Everton now have the small matter of Manchester City at Goodison Park on Wednesday, then they are away to Liverpool next Saturday.

94 min: Everton fire over one last cross, a free-kick in a dangerous area on their left. Areola claims it, and as he falls, Michael Keane appears to lift his heel deliberately, as if trying to kick the ball out of the goalkeeper’s hands. There is some scuffling. It was petulant by Keane, and he is booked. Fulham’s Onomah is also booked.

93 min: Bernard, the substitute, swings a cross over for Everton. Sigurdsson goes for a header, Tosin Adarabioyo goes to clear with his foot, and there are wails for a penalty. But the referee, rightly, is not interested.

92 min: “This is why we can’t have nice things,” writes Mary Waltz. “Everton have a realistic chance to finish ahead of that team across the street. Full credit to Fulham, they are whipping our backsides. Next two fixtures, Liverpool, City. They should have a special category for Everton depression.”

90 min: Four minutes of added time. Fulham’s Josh Onomah comes on for Lemina.

88 min: Keane meets a cross from the right with a header, a glancing effort that he can’t get enough power on, and Areola saves comfortably again. Fulham, barring some completely bizarre miracle for Everton, have got this sewn up.

85 min: Everton, more by the ‘infinite number of monkeys’ principle than anything else, are exerting a little pressure on Fulham. They win another free-kick, and swing it into the box, but there is little hope of anyone with a blue shirt winning it, and Fulham hoick it clear.

83 min: André-Frank Zambo Anguissa comes on for Fulham, in place of Lookman. He is holding a written note from the manager Parker, which he gives to Decordova-Reid.

“It says Happy Valentine’s Day on there!” Steve McManaman declares on commentary, before giving a hearty laugh to his own joke. This is GREAT banter, it really is!

81 min: Everton win a free-kick on their left, just outside the box. Digne curls it over, Fulham clear for a corner. Sigurdsson gets it back having taken the corner, and tries a bit of trickery to engineer space for another cross - but the fresh legs of Cavaleiro see him dispossessed. Great work by Cavaleiro.

77 min: Digne challenges Tete on the touchline. They have a little cuddle, and Tete falls theatrically to the floor by the Everton dugout. Ancelotti helps him up, and we get on with the game.

75 min: Reed, who has been superb for Fulham, uncharacteristically loses the ball on halfway, and Everton flood forward in attack. They win a corner, and the ball drops to Sigurdsson on the edge of the penalty area, and he thuds a shot into the turf, which sits up nicely for Areola for a comfortable save. That was Everton’s first effort on target.

73 min: Ingo Herzke sorts it all out, via email:

“Hi Luke, I can assure you that there’s no such thing as a “thunderbastard” in German football vocabulary. We’re far more prosaic: “Hammer” (remember Jörg Albertz?), “Rakete” (meaning rocket, as you might have guessed), or, most boring and literal, “a shot like a straight line” (“ein Schuss wie ein Strich”). But we should definitely introduce it.”

72 min: Double-goal hero Maja goes off, so no hat-trick, but what a great shift he has put in. Ivan Cavaleiro comes on. Maja’s on loan from Bordeaux and that was certainly a vintage display, eh?

70 min: Everton win a corner. They have 20 minutes or so to try and find a way back into this game. But they have been second-best - and Areola punches that corner clear and gets plenty of distance on it, too. Fulham’s energy levels have dropped off a bit, though, and Everton are now enjoying a bit of possession, which they barely had in the first half.

69 min: Fulham joy / Everton woe:

68 min: Thanks David Moss for the tweet about the Sonntagsschuss:

61 min: Into the final half an hour, and BT Sport’s commentators are quite rightly noting how dominant Fulham have been in every facet of this match.

They need another goal to be safe, though, needless to say ...

60 min: Simon McMahon has been in touch on email again: “I’ve managed to dig out the wonderful ‘Do You Speak Football’ by Tom Williams which has the definitive list of phrases to describe long range screamers.

“Here are my favourites - pombo sem asa (pigeon without wings - Brazil), pushka strashnaya (scary cannon - Russia), and the king of them all, bballaejul katteun shoot (clothesline shot - South Korea), which, if it doesn’t hit the top corner, then becomes a daegigwon dolpa shoot (outer space shot).”

58 min: Fulham are literally camped in Everton’s half, as Kevin Keegan once said. Loftus-Cheek makes a surge into the penalty area, checks back, and has time to pick out Lookman. Lookman does the right thing and hits it first-time, but he puts it over the crossbar.

55 min: Aina, again, is causing plenty of danger on the left. He cracks another low cross into the danger zone, and Maja nearly gets on the end of it, but Holgate manages to get rid.

The newly-signed striker Josh King and Michael Keane come on for Everton, Tom Davies and Seamus Coleman go off.

52 min: Doucouré’s attempt to challenge Aina in the build-up to the goal was half-hearted at best, a point which seemed to be made to him by Doucouré’s teammate Coleman after the net bulged.

Fulham break again down the left, and another dangerous cross is dummied by Maja, as he hopes that the ball reaches Loftus-Cheek, but Everton are able to clear.

Fred Decker, in fairness to the lad, has cannoned this in the top corner:

“It may be that your inbox has already been flooded with this sort of pedantry, and you’ve just chosen (probably wisely) not to share it. That being said ... A howitzer has relatively low velocity, and a relatively high, arcing trajectory. Think a speculative chip from out near mid-field. A mortar has even lower velocity and a higher trajectory. More like a little dink from six or seven yards. The kind of hard, straight shot Emily Chard spoke of comes from a straight-up field piece, aka “gun” or “cannon.” Of course, if you’re a commentator, there’s just no fun in saying “cannon.” For a *really* flat, high-velocity shot you want something like an anti-tank gun, but that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue with a flourish.

“Once again, pedantry sucks the life out of an innocent bit of exuberance. But that’s what it’s for, right? Best, Fred Decker (Canadian EPL fan, military brat).”

Half-time email frenzy! You love to see it.

Nathan Fisher, 7.51pm: “The German term for a 30-yard thunderbastard is surely “Hitzlsperger”, nein?”

Mike Daniels, 7.53pm: “Surely the German term for a thirty-yard screamer is a “Hitzlsperger.””

Two people can’t be wrong. Can they?

Simon McMahon emails: “Evening Luke. Isn’t there a German term for a thirty-yard screamer that translates to something like ‘thunderbastard’?”

I don’t know, to be honest, Simon. But in my very basic Italian I can tell you that good shot is ‘bel colpo’ and bad shot is ‘brutto colpo’, which I love. BRUTTO COLPO by Anderson for Fulham just then.

40 min: Doucouré gives away a free-kick, which is drilled diagonally into the penalty area and flicks off an Everton head. Fulham’s Anderson tries a ridiculously ambitious volley from a tight angle, beyond the far post, but he spanks it high and away to safety.

36 min: A bit more keep-ball for Fulham. You can certainly guess which team had an eight-day gap between fixtures and which team had a draining FA Cup tie in midweek. Fulham look far more energetic, but can they make this superiority count and turn it into points? At this stage a 2-0 lead would hardly flatter them, given all the changes they have created.

33 min: A Fulham move breaks down, and Everton hit on the break, with Gomes curling a very speculative shot wide from distance after loads of space opened up for Rodríguez in midfield.

Seconds later, Everton are on the move again - Seamus Coleman makes a good run cutting in from the right, charges to the edge of the penalty area, and drives a low shot which bounces off the outside of a post and out. Signs of life.