Moyes On Mixed Emotions, Late Penalty Shout & Lindstrøm Update

David Moyes admitted he had mixed emotions after Everton's eventful 2-2 draw with Manchester United at Goodison Park.

The Blues extended their unbeaten league run to six matches with a hard-earned point – Beto bagging his fifth goal in four top-flight games and Abdoulaye Doucoure netting on his return to the side from suspension. 

But it could have been more, with Moyes' men being pegged back from their 2-0 half-time lead and then denied an injury-time penalty when referee Andy Madley awarded a spot-kick for a foul on Ashley Young – only to controversially overturn his decision after being advised to check by VAR.

After full-time, Moyes spoke to evertontv and gave his reaction to a lively encounter – including that late penalty call, the displays of Beto and Doucoure, an update on Jesper Lindstrøm after the winger was forced off in the second half, and what the feeling from the clash says about the progress made by his Everton squad.

Watch the interview in full below or here, and read every word of what Moyes had to say.

David, a match that could have been anything but, in the end, what's your overriding emotion from 2-2?

I'm really pleased with lots of things the players have done. Obviously the match slipped away from us a wee bit at the end but not badly. I think the game changes on them scoring the free kick when we were 2-0 up. In fact, I think just before that we should have probably been 3-0 up. We just lost the goal, gave Manchester United momentum, then they had to go for it. We couldn't quite cope with that in the end.

You say about momentum. Our players deserve credit for coming back into it right at the end. We got a penalty. Was it clear and obvious enough to overturn?

I don't think the referee should have been called to VAR, I really don't. Why would VAR intervene in that? I've got no idea. Unless they really thought it was bad, no, he definitely pulls the jersey and Ash goes down.  If it was the other way around, I wouldn't have been surprised if it was given. So, then that's me being pretty neutral in that decision. But we didn't get it, and that was it.

We had a 2-2 draw against Liverpool and it felt like a win. Today's a 2-2 draw and feels a little bit like a defeat. But it tells us how far we're coming that we're getting a bit disappointed that we can't beat Manchester United.

You said in your press conference on Friday that you wanted the crowd to get behind you again, with 12.30pm kick-offs sometimes a challenge for all teams. You absolutely got that, made a fast start, and another goal for Beto with his fifth in four games…

Yes, he's done great and, by the way, I have to say the crowd was brilliant today. You don’t know if it’s a wee bit sun on their back as well but it was great… and I think the support picked up on how well the players are doing, their energy, their commitment.

We pressed and worked really hard today to get some good moments in the game. We deservedly were 2-0 up and, as I said, I’m actually a bit disappointed that we didn't get 3-0 up at one point.

Because of injuries you've rarely had welcome selection headaches but you had one today in Doucs and Charly Alcaraz and Doucs rewarded you with another goal.

Yes, Doucs played really well. It was a difficult decision to play him or Charly. But I think on Doucs’ performance today it showed justification of why we chose him.

A lot of attacking quality you've got missing at the minute but Jesper had to come off, how do you think he is?

Jesper had a flu bug and that was why we took him off so early because he'd said at half-time he thought he was struggling with it. We knew a little bit before the game so that was the reason why we made such an early change on that one.

And then, finally, just the positives from this. It's now six games unbeaten in the Premier League, another point and two more goals. It's a real big turnaround the players have given you since you've become manager.

I think they've done brilliantly and played really well today. Lots of things they've done are good. Beto has a chance at the end from a great cross from Jack who put in a couple of really good balls.

We're beginning to see players who maybe at times people were saying were not playing well or not good enough We're beginning to see them finding a little bit of form, a bit of confidence And then, by the way, a point today isn't a bad result.