Romelu Lukaku came back to haunt West Bromwich Albion as he inspired a stunning second-half comeback from Everton in a 3-2 Barclays Premier League win at The Hawthorns on Monday night.
Roberto Martinez's side appeared to be heading for defeat after seeing the Baggies take a 2-0 lead through Saido Berahino and Craig Dawson, which looked to have put them on the verge of a third win in four BPL matches.
However, Lukaku - who spent a season on loan at The Hawthorns in 2012/13 - pulled a goal back just a minute after Dawson's goal before playing in substitute Arouna Kone to fire home a 75th-minute equaliser.
And the turnaround was completed six minutes from time when Lukaku tapped home Gerard Deulofeu's cross at the second attempt to send Everton up to fifth in the table ahead of next Sunday's Merseyside derby.
A keenly fought opening 25 minutes was followed by a setback for West Brom when centre-back Jonas Olsson - who replaced Gareth McAuley in the starting XI - limped off with an injury, with James Chester taking his spot in the backline.
The contest sprung into life late in the first half when Berahino capitalised on some poor Everton defending to open the scoring.
Ramon Funes Mori and Gareth Barry combined to surrender possession in midfield and James Morrison then threaded a perfectly placed pass into the path of Berahino to finish past Tim Howard.
James McClean fired over from the edge of the area at the end of a quick West Brom counter three minutes after the restart before Howard did well to keep out Darren Fletcher's far-post header.
But from the resulting corner, Dawson lost his marker and met Chris Brunt's delivery with a header that went down into the ground and beyond a stricken Howard.
Everton responded 27 seconds after the restart, though, as Lukaku rose high above Chester and turned a pinpoint right-wing cross from Deulofeu beyond the diving Boaz Myhill.
Martinez's men struggled to craft opportunities to level the scores but the introduction of Kone - brought on for Steven Naismith - proved pivotal. The Ivory Coast international sprung the offside trap from Lukaku's neat through ball and lashed a strike into the bottom-left corner.
And there was to be one final twist in the tale, which came as Lukaku latched on to another fine Deulofeu delivery, following up a first touch by squeaking the ball in at the near post to complete an impressive fightback.
West Bromwich Albion manager Tony Pulis: "We get the second goal and all we've got to do is sit tight and be nice and solid for 10 minutes. The defending off the set plays was awful. We were still celebrating [after Dawson's goal], you have to get the ball back and take the sting out of the game. We gave them the opportunity. We had the game in our hands and we gave it to Everton really."
Everton manager Roberto Martinez: "[We showed] Incredible character to come back and get a win. After conceding two goals we had to show a lot of character a lot of desire to improve. We never gave up. To score three goals from open play against West Brom speaks volumes of the quality [in our side]. We knew it was a real good test, to be able to break them [West Brom] down and get the three points you have to put a lot of things together."
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