EVERTON beat West Ham United to reach semi-final of the Carling Cup

West Ham United 1:2 EVERTON [FT}

Yakubu scored the winning goal in tonight's Quarter-Final. The Everton fans [who filled the Centenary stand] went bonkers, as they saw us reach a Semi-Final for the first time in 12 years.

West Ham had taken the lead after a poor opening spell by Everton. Carlton Cole beat Tim Howard to a long ball from Neill, he went around Howard and put the ball into our empty net.

Everton then built up a head of steam and an equaliser duly followed.

Five minutes before half time, Pienaar assisted Osman who's shot resulted in a leveller for the Blues.

In the second half, we stepped up a couple of gears. We controlled matters throughout the remainder of the match.

Yobo was superb and starting attacks with some tremendous long passes and headers. He thrived in the absence of the substituted Carlton Cole. Gone was the slack marking and poor discipline in the final third that the first half had yielded. In the face of a fierce Everton assault, Parker, Mullins and Ashton became pale shadows of their first half selves. Tim Howard found himself with very little to do in the second half.

A few minutes before the final whistle, a long clearance by Howard caused panic in the Hammers defence. A botch [Gabbidon headed the ball past his own keeper] allowed a rampaging Yakubu to latch onto the ball and put Everton into a winning position.

An inexplicble 3 minutes of injury time was then added but it was not enough to advantage the home side.

We finished the game very strongly, our fitness levels are fantastic.

We're on our way to Wembley.