D Monday, February 22, 2010 SPORT 23 SOCCER PREMIER LEAGUE Duffs key role in Fulham fightback Winner: Zamora Fulham: Schwarzer, Baird, Hughes, Hangeland, Shorey, Davies (Riise 83), Etuhu, Murphy (Smalling 90), Duff, Gera, Zamora. Booked: Duff. Birmingham: Hart, Carr, Dann, Johnson, Ridgewell, Fahey, Bowyer, Ferguson (Madera 90), McFadden, Larsson (Gardner 68), Jerome (Phillips 77). Booked: McFadden. Ref: Phil Dowd fulham 2 birmingham 1damien duffs stunning equaliser put fulham on the road to victory at Craven Cottage yesterday. The ireland wingers strike cancelled out an early Chris Baird own goal before Bobby Zamoras cracking form continued as he netted a late winner. Zamora, whose superb goal saw off shakhtar donetsk in the europa League on Thursday night, was at it again when he struck a superb free-kick in the 90th minute to lift Roy Hodgsons men into ninth in the table. Birmingham had taken the lead thanks to Bairds third-minute own goal, when the defender headed a Lee Bowyer cross into his own net. But fulham levelled in the 59th minute thanks to a magnificent goal from duff, who combined with Zoltan Gera before driving in from the edge of the area. daVid mOYes believes everton will be able to stop the Premier Leagues big spenders raiding the club for brilliant youngsters Jack Rodwell and dan Gosling. The Goodison Park boss insists his club are in a stronger position than when they sold Wayne Rooney to manchester united in 2004. The Toffees beat united 3-1 at home on saturday to continue their rapid rise up the table with Rodwell, 18, and Gosling, 20, both scoring after coming off the bench. united have been linked with a move for Rodwell but moyes said: Theres been quite a lot of attention towards Jack for a while. But strangely enough, it was Wayne that worried me a lot more. it doesnt worry me quite so much with Jack because weve been through it before. Our team is good enough to carry Jack and keep bigger suitors away. Moyes sure he can keep youngsters Keeping the title will be tough for us: Evra Patrice evra admits retaining the Premier League title will be far tougher for Manchester United than the champions had imagined. Boss Sir alex Ferguson told his players prior to Saturdays clash with everton a win at Goodison Park would prove they were capa- ble of collecting an unprecedented fourth successive championship. instead, United left Merseyside with their tails between their legs following a deserved 3-1 defeat. With chelsea subsequently beat- ing Wolves at Molineux, United have fallen four points adrift of the title favourites and need make up lost ground. and while France defender evra (pictured) is refusing to panic about the situation, he concedes Unit- eds task is more arduous than expected. the defeat has not damaged our bid for the title because a lot of big teams go to everton and dont win, he insisted. the feeling was if we could win there, we could win the title. We didnt do it so it is more difficult than we think to win the league. United have an immediate chance to pile pressure back on chelsea by beating West Ham at Old trafford tomorrow. Yet the brutal truth is the Blues will mark carlo ancelottis first season at Stamford Bridge by sealing the title if they win their other ten games, no matter what happens when the Londoners meet United at Old trafford on april 3. tiredness might have been a factor given the effort United put into their champions League win over ac Milan in the San Siro on tuesday. But everton were also in action that night, beating Sporting Lisbon 2-1 in the eu- ropa League, and David Moyes made fewer changes to his side. Surprisingly, evra cited a lack of self-belief within the visitors ranks for their emphatic defeat on Saturday. We were not fo- cused on the game, he claimed. everyone was talking about how tired they were and how their legs were tired. But i dont want to use that as an excuse. i am not saying someone did not show their character and we did everything we could. But i dont think we believed enough. We just needed a little bit more belief and we could have got a better result. By Kevin Aitken We werent focused, we didnt have belief Picture:CameraSport Jack the lad: Rodwell celebrates his goal against United Petr cecH is backing chelsea team-mate Didier Drogba to beat his personal-best tally of 33 goals in a season this term. Drogbas latest goals which took his tally for this campaign to 25 was enough to seal a 2-0 win at Wolves and move the Blues four points clear of Manchester United at the top of the Premier League. the ivory coast striker has been in superb form since returning from the africa cup of Nations and chelsea goalkeeper cech said: Didier has been brilliant all season. He can beat that 33 record. You can see he is in form. He is confident and if he stays fit i am sure hell get more goals. He is one of the best strikers in the world and he just keeps doing the same things. Cech tips Didier to net seasons best Lethal: Drogba index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html