Fulham 1 Everton 0:"I DON'T believe in magic wands," said Roy Hodgson after this game but the Fulham manager does have evidence of minor miracles.

His side had lost four of their previous five games here and in Everton were facing a side yet to lose in 2008 and particularly formidable away.

They have seen their share of shambles here this season but for once it was the visitors stuttering and Fulham's victory has revived their chances of avoiding relegation.

Eight matches remain and, worryingly for a team yet to win away from home this season, only three of those will be played at home, but the resilience Fulham showed yesterday augurs well.

"If we want to stay up we need to reproduce this performance eight more times," said Hodgson. "They showed great enthusiasm, great hunger, great desire. These are qualities that most Premier League teams have in abundance and we have to at least match them if we are going to stay up."

They will also need an element of good fortune and yesterday was a fortunate time to be playing Everton. Wednesday's Uefa Cup defeat by Fiorentina after a penalty shoot-out would have sapped strength and spirit but this match exposed the weakness of their squad.

When Andrew Johnson limped off with a groin strain in the 14th minute Everton were left with one fit striker in Yakubu Ayegbeni. For the last half-hour Joleon Lescott joined the Nigerian in a makeshift front line.

Everton manager David Moyes reflecting on the lack of firepower added: "It is a concern at the moment - Andy has a groin strain but I looked at my bench and I didn't have a lot of options.

"The mood has been good and the club has done great. I am just disappointed we didn't play well but I have to give Fulham credit because they made it hard for us."

Fulham's victory was, needless to say, rapturously received by a crowd thirsty for success. "I thought the fans were great," said Hodgson.

"It's not something that one associates automatically with this club. If you closed your eyes, you could have been at Anfield or Old Trafford."

Hodgson could have spent the entire first half with his eyes closed without missing anything of interest. As it neared its conclusion the referee, Steve Bennett, was tasked with deciding how much additional time to allow for stoppages.

Having considered all the attacks and excitement of the preceding 45 minutes Bennett played an additional three seconds and it was difficult to work out where he had found that.

But matters improved, albeit gradually. Two minutes into the second half Lescott failed to connect with Mikel Arteta's free-kick only because of Brede Hangeland's deliberate, but unpunished, block. In the 59th minute Fulham won the game's first corner, from which the unimpressive Eddie Johnson headed over.

Excitement increased in line with the teams' rising ambition but Everton in the end were punished for attempting to attack. In the 66th minute Tony Hibbert's low cross from the byline was cut out at the near post by Kasey Keller. The ball was cleared downfield to Simon Davies and, with his opposing full-back stranded upfield, he ran down the left wing and crossed for Brian McBride to head in from six yards.

If Moyes was cursing then, it might have been because both scorer and creator used to play at Goodison Park.

Fulham came closer to extending their lead than they did to losing it, both Davies and Johnson missing good chances to add a second.

Hodgson, ever the pessimist, moaned about having to play Johnson at all. "In an ideal world he'd just be training with us, getting some experience," he said, "but we don't live in an ideal world. In fact from where I'm sitting the world's about as far from ideal as it could possibly get."

It is hard to imagine what mood he might have been in had Fulham lost.