Ferguson hails Hernandez, Moyes wanted point

Sir Alex Ferguson has praised Javier Hernandez for his goal that gave Manchester United a 1-0 victory over Everton in the Premier League.

United youngsters Danny Welbeck and Tom Cleverley combined well to work the ball to Patrice Evra, before the French international struck an inch-perfect cross to find Hernandez to score the only goal of the game on 19 minutes.

“In the first half we played some fantastic football and scored a good goal,” Ferguson told BBC Sport.

“Hernandez is fantastic in the box.”

It was a much-improved performance from United following last week’s 6-1 drubbing at home to their bitter rivals Manchester City, particularly in defence, and Ferguson recognised the rise in performance from his back four.

“It’s a good result and we worked hard for it. It’s an important result to come away from home and win,” he continued.

“Everton is never an easy game and they put everything they could into the game.”

Everton boss David Moyes said his side deserved a point from the contest, which saw the Toffees denied multiple penalty appeals, and a goal by the underside of the crossbar from Leighton Baines’ first-half free-kick.

“It has been a tough period of fixtures for us and I have taken quite a bit of confidence from the way the players have played today,” Moyes told reporters after the game.

“It was a difficult task with the injuries we have and playing against Manchester United off the back of a heavy defeat for them last week.”

“I think we were unlucky not to get at least a point out of the game. Manchester United had very few attempts but maybe we didn’t have that little bit of quality in the final third.”

“We looked the stronger side in the second half – the players did a great job today.”

“I thought we kept going. There were moments when we could have made an extra pass and I think we showed some inexperience.”

“Manchester United were resilient and we couldn’t break them down.”