West Brom 1 Everton 0: In the race for fourth place Everton again look better suited to the pacemaking than the sprint. Two seasons ago David Moyes' team were overtaken in the final straight in their quest for a Champions League berth and yesterday's result and performance made a repeat likely.

This third consecutive defeat means Everton's lead over Liverpool, their closest challengers, has been whittled down rapidly from seven points to one, and there was little here to give them encouragement for the coming weeks. A late rally which produced two chances for Marcus Bent could not prevent West Brom from gaining a vital win.

Everton's lack of quality and creativity was plain in a poor, tight game as West Brom gave themselves serious hope of avoiding the drop by climbing level with fourth-bottom Southampton.

With 11 points from their past 12 matches Everton are in relegation form and their mood will hardly be helped by the loss of James Beattie because of a knee ligament injury sustained in training before this game. Moyes estimated that the striker will be out for three weeks, which would make him available only for the final three matches.

West Brom are in the sort of groove that Everton would love, this being their third win in four attempts. What they lacked in finesse they made up for with passion and their defending was largely solid. Thomas Gaardsoe and Neil Clement were strong at centre-half and Paul Robinson played well enough to deservedly get away with one error.

Everton could make a case for deserving a point but largely had themselves to blame for losing. The substitute Joseph Yobo was beaten to a cross by Zoltan Gera for the decisive goal and Bent wasted three opportunities.

They may have had a case for a penalty shortly after going behind when Gera pulled Tim Cahill by an arm but even Moyes questioned whether the tug on the Australian was "hard enough to warrant" a spot-kick.

Although Everton enjoyed more possession they were often guilty of giving the ball away cheaply, especially in a dreadful first half, and were short of cutting edge. Their play was predictable without a wide player capable of regularly going past an opponent and Mikel Arteta, who had an average game, looked their only real source of cunning.

For the most part there was too little support in the box for Bent, with Cahill almost never a goal threat. They looked more dangerous after Duncan Ferguson came on as a second striker in the 75th minute.

It seems the sale of Thomas Gravesen in January has hit them hard and it was difficult to believe Moyes afterwards when he said: "I have never been thinking about the Champions League."