Class is key to resolving problems; BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE.

Byline: CHRIS BEESLEY at Goodison Park

Everton 2

West Brom 0

AT HOME to the division's basement team, on paper this was Everton's easiest Premier League fixture of the season.

But as everyone knows, games are won and lost on the pitch not on paper.

That's just as well for David Moyes's side, because just one look at their horrific injury list this season would be enough to fool you into thinking that the campaign should be a write-off.

Everton's Finch Farm must resemble a field hospital more than a training complex these days, and Moyes could be forgiven if he abandoned drilling his side at all between matches and ordered his stars to stay at home wrapped in cotton wool.

Yet there can be no escaping the dangers of actually taking to the field in Premier League combat itself. With trips to Newcastle possessing more stamps than philatelist French president Nicolas Sarkozy then the Goodison Park outfit are always going to run the risk of adding to their growing list of crocks.

While play-maker Mikel Arteta's sickening injury was one of those blameless incidents that seemed so innocuous at the time, the sickening challenge by Kevin Nolan that looks like keeping Victor Anichebe on the sidelines for the season along with the Spaniard was inexcusable and looks worse with every viewing.

Nolan's red card tackle at St James' Park will go down as the most infamous moment from a match that for footballing reasons was unremarkable. But there was another 'over the top' challenge that went relatively unnoticed from fellow Merseysider Ryan Taylor which subsequently prevented Jack Rodwell from training last week and forced the teenager to sit out the Baggies' visit on Saturday.

With such a series of setbacks to so many of their players, teams with lesser resolve would have cracked by now but, fortunately, Everton's walking wounded have coped admirably throughout adversity to date and the nature of the Premier League table this term suggests that a third successive UEFA Cup qualification should be secured come May.

But it's FA Cup glory these success-starved fans dream of the most.

They'll be hoping that Middlesbrough peaked a week too early but even though the Teessiders' quarter-final visit to Goodison Park was another two games away, the prevalent chant from the home support against Tony Mowbray's side remained the defiant Cup anthem 'We shall not be moved'.

Publicly Moyes maintains that doing well in their 'bread and butter' matches remains his priority but he nevertheless rested Joleon Lescott from this encounter in order to prevent the risk of the defender picking up a booking which would rule him out of the last eight tie against Gareth Southgate's troops.

In doing so, the Birmingham-born defender missed out on his chance play in the most consecutive matches of any Everton player from signing for the club.

Although five of his appearances have been as a substitute, before Saturday Lescott had featured in all 129 Everton games since he arrived from Wolves in 2006.

Perhaps increasingly motivated by the fact that he missed the Molineux club's sole Premier League season in 2003/04 due to a serious knee injury which led Everton to renegotiate the terms of his protracted transfer, the England international hates to miss out on playing and it was ironic that his run ended against his former employers' Black Country rivals.

Lescott was actually set to come off the bench when Louis Saha netted, but the two-goal cushion prompted Moyes to withdraw Jo for Segundo Castillo instead.

So instead the 26-year-old, who fought back from being hit by a car as a child to become a professional footballer, saw his sequence halted six games shy of Everton's first FA Cup-winning captain Jack Taylor, a man killed in a motor accident in 1949, who played in 135 consecutive fixtures after arriving at Goodison Park in 1896.

Although Lescott stepped down, Moyes opted to start with Phil Neville despite his skipper also walking a disciplinary tightrope ahead of the Middlesbrough game.

Tim Cahill and Tony Hibbert, who were both suspended for the previous weekend's trip to Newcastle were restored but enjoyed contrasting fortunes.

The Australian thought he had volleyed Everton ahead when he connected with a left-wing cross from Leighton Baines but his effort was ruled out for a push on visiting skipper Paul Robinson.

Hibbert lasted just 26 minutes before becoming the latest player to succumb to Everton's injury jinx when he picked up a thigh strain and was replaced by another team-mate returning to fitness, Leon Osman.

However, 10 minutes later Cahill did score a goal that counted as he headed in another delivery from the left by Baines, this time from a free-kick, with hapless Scott Carson still leaving observers wondering just how he got near to the England squad by being caught in no-man's land and running into Marouane Fellaini.

Unsurprisingly it wasn't the only collision that the Belgian midfielder was involved in on the day and his now obligatory booking arrived early in the second half following a foul on substitute Jonathan Greening who had only been on the pitch for a matter of moments.

Seemingly doomed West Brom have picked up just a single point out of their last 30 on their Premier League travels and haven't won at Goodison Park for 30 years.

They almost netted an equaliser when their most likely attacking outlet, substitute Luke Moore, flicked on a header by Ryan Donk, from a Chris Brunt right-wing corner, only to see his goal-bound effort scooped off the line by Phil Jagielka with Tim Howard catching the ball.

The Baggies continued to press on the counter and James Morrison capitalised on a slip by Cahill to drive forward and work an opening past Joseph Yobo, who attempted to jockey him, but dragged his effort across the face of goal.

But for all the visitors' workmanlike qualities and their persistence in a positive approach which will win them far more friends than points this season, they do not possess a top-class match-winner like Louis Saha.

Manchester United don't make a habit of letting their best players go, but Moyes has profited on several occasions in recent years in taking on Sir Alex Ferguson's fringe squad members.

Phil Neville is now a club stalwart, a captain who is a leader both on and off the field.

In goalkeeper Howard Everton have finally found the muchanticipated long-term successor to Neville Southall.

Saha's body no longer allows him to operate at the highest level on a consistent week-in, week-out basis, but when he is fit his class is still there for all to see.

The French striker sealed the points on 69 minutes when, receiving the ball with his back to goal from Steven Pienaar, he turned to fire an instinctive left-foot finish into the bottom right-hand corner of Carson's goal.

There was still time for Moore to rattle Howard's crossbar but any fightback looked impossible.

As long as Moyes can continue to get any given 11 men on the park on any given matchday then his battling Everton side will remain a match for most of the Premier League.

Who knows, the way things are going the lesser-spotted Lars Jacobsen might even make it on to the pitch sometime soon.

MAN OF THE MATCH

Steven Pienaar

Phil Jagielka was faultless at the back again but the South African provided the much-needed creativity needed in Mikel Arteta's absence

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MATCH FACTS

Cahill 36, Saha 69

EVERTON (4-4-2): Howard, Hibbert (Osman 26), Yobo, Jagielka, Baines, Gosling, Neville, Fellaini (Saha 60), Pienaar, Cahill, Jo (Castillo 75).

Subs: Nash, Lescott, Van der Meyde, Jacobsen.

BOOKING: Fellaini (foul).

WEST BROM (4-4-2): Carson, Zuiverloon, Meite, Donk, Robinson, Morrison, Koren, Borja Valero (Greening 53), Brunt, Simpson (Moore 57), Fortune (Filipe Teixeira 89). Subs: Kiely, Hoefkens, Cech,

Menseguez.

BOOKING: Greening.

WEST BROM (4-4-2): Carson, Zuiverloon, Meite, Donk, Robinson, Morrison, Koren, Borja Valero (Greening 53), Brunt, Simpson (Moore 57), Fortune (Filipe Teixeira 89). Subs: Kiely, Hoefkens, Cech, Menseguez.

BOOKING: Greening.

NEXT GAME: Blackburn Rovers v Everton, Premier League, Wednesday 8 pm.

CAPTION(S):

Substitute Louis Saha fires Everton's second goal Pictures: GARETH JONES; Tim Cahill heads past West Brom keeper Scott Carson to give Everton the lead; Jo bursts through the West Brom defence; Tim Cahill holds off West Brom skipper Paul Robinson