Moyes not celebrating Everton finish

David Moyes refused to celebrate Everton finishing seventh despite a 3-1 win over Newcastle in their final game of the season.

The Toffees beat the Champions League hopefuls to give Moyes back-to-back seventh-placed campaigns, but did not qualify for Europe and the Scot was keen to play down the significance of eclipsing city rivals Liverpool in the Premier League standings.

“I just wanted to finish as high up the Premier League table as I could and it didn’t really bother me who you finish above,” Moyes said.

“I don’t think you can celebrate seventh. We have been brought up that you finish in first and maybe, in the Premier League, if you get the Champions League or even if you finish in Europe.

“If we had finished seventh and got into Europe then I think that would have been worth shouting about.

“We played brilliantly today, but we have been playing in that fashion for last few months really and it was really good to watch.”

Everton did not enjoy the best of starts to the campaign though enjoyed a superb run in the second half of the term that was sparked into life by a number of smart January acquisitions.

Nikica Jelavic, a five-million-pound buy from Rangers, scored his ninth Premier League goal against the Magpies and Moyes claimed that the impact of his signings were a welcome boost.

“It has been the best January I have ever had as in the main January is not really a month that I do business – maybe a loan player here or there – but we had a great January and we needed it because we weren’t in a good position,” he said.

“We will try and build on it and we should start the season better and take this form into next year.

“We are trying to play better, get better player in trying to improve all the time but that’s not easy and sometimes we have to do it long way here at Everton because we can’t just go and spend the cash.

The loss means Newcastle miss out on a spot in the Champions League next season, and manager Alan Pardew said they would look to improve again next season.

“Firstly, can I congratulate Arsenal and Tottenham on finishing above us as you finish where you finish in the league and they deserved to finish above us,” Pardew said.

“For us, we have made a huge leap into that group and next year I hope we are in the same field of expectation.

“We have had a good season because we have a group of players and staff and we are all in it together and when you look at our goal difference I think it’s just +5 today and that takes some spirit to beat games out like that.

“We have had to win a lot of tight games so next year the focus from me will be trying to improve us defensively and give us those few extra wins that would get us in the Champions League spot.”