David Moyes' Everton defeated 10-man Burnley at Goodison Park to claim their first win in eight matches and consign Owen Coyle's Clarets to their ninth successive away defeat. With the hour mark passing and the deadlock unbroken, Stephen Jordan's needless foul on Everton's Steven Pienaar in the 61st minute saw him shown his second yellow card. The defender's dismissal gave the Toffees the impetus to push forward and steal two late goals from substitute James Vaughan and the ever-impressive Steven Pienaar.
The result ensured Burnley returned to Turf Moor still searching for their first away win of the season. "It's a mixture of emotions, frustration and anger, because we had opportunities to score the first goal of the game," said Coyle. "We had some good goal-scoring chances and looked very comfortable prior to going down to 10 men. If we continue playing and performing as well as that, we'll be fine."
Moyes's men had not won at home since September, while Burnley had won just four times on the road in the whole of 2009 and before the sending off it looked like the game could swing either way. Everton's fluent one-touch movement in the midfield was creating chances, but the Clarets - and particularly Steven Fletcher - always looked dangerous. But 20 minutes after Jordan's dismissal, Vaughan was introduced and the injury-plagued midfielder made an instant impact. The 21 year-old was lurking at the back post in the 83rd minute and tapped in for his first goal in two years after Marouane Fellaini's fantastic ball eluded Yakubu.
As Burnley pushed for an equaliser, Pienaar - who had been pulling the strings for the entire game - picked up a through-ball from Yakuba and smashed an unstoppable shot past Brian Jensen at his near post. "We played really well in the first half, but didn't get the goal our play merited," said Moyes. "The introduction of James Vaughan gave us something different, and within a minute or two he got the goal. Overall we deserved the victory." Man of the match: Steven Pienaar (Everton) @Email:gmeenaghan@thenational.ae
