United came away from Goodison Park with a well-deserved point after today's encounter with Everton.
Despite a busy start for the Irons it looked like another defeat was on the cards after a first half in which absolutely nothing went right for Zola's men who were looking to end a run that had seen them lose six on the trot.Things started to go wrong before the match had even started with Valon Behrami picking up what looked like a muscle strain in the pre-match warm up.
Things went from bad to worse when ref Howard Webb issued a yellow card for a Parker challenge that had clearly won the ball. What was not to be Webb's last bafflingly inept decision of the day means that Parker will miss the forthcoming matches against Sunderland and Liverpool.
Things went from bad to worse on 24 minutes when Spector headed a ball straight up in the air and Bilyaledtinov flicked Cahill's unchallenged header past Green from close range.
Hammers were granted a lifeline on 37 minutes when Carlton Cole was put clean through by Parker's superb through ball. Distin upended the striker when clean through but disgracefully avoided the red card that the denial of goalscoring opportunity should have brought as Webb decided that a yellow should suffice.
Mido decided to take the penalty but his weak effort made it far too easy for Howard to save down to his right and the half ended with most observers wondering what more could go wrong.
Whatever was said at half-time it certainly worked for once. Hammers started the second period by far the better team and might have levelled just short of the hour when Noble's clever chip came back off the crossbar before being smuggled away for a corner. The respite for the home side was short lived as Cole and Cahil challenged for the ball, Da Costa was closest to the loose ball and, despite falling forward, managed to get enough on the ball to push it past Howard to give the visitors a much-deserved equaliser.
Carlton Cole then scuffed a shot wide following a good move before United enjoyed their first spot of good fortune at the hands of Webb. Saha beat Da Costa to the ball and went down under a challenge best described as clumsy. However, possibly mindful of his numerous errors in favour of the home side in the first half, Webb elected to wave play on to deny the home side a penalty - though it appeared that the initial contact had taken place outside the box.
All the hard work seemed to have been for nothing with 5 minutes of normal time left when poor defending in the air once more allowed sub Yakubu to put another close-range header.
However, the home side's lead lasted but two minutes as Julien Faubert capped a decent run with an inch-perfect ball for sub Ilan to place a marvellous diving header home to level the scores and give the visitors the least that they deserved after an excellent 45 minutes.
The point leaves the Irons three points behind Wigan with a vastly superior goal difference and it is to be hoped that the spirit shown on Merseyside can be carried forward into the next few vital matches.
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