Proud Moyes praises ´great start´

Everton manager David Moyes was in a confident mood after starting the season in style with a 1-0 win over Manchester United.

Marouane Fellaini was the hero for Everton, scoring the only goal and starring in a superb display, and speaking after the match, Moyes was understandably proud of his team and keen to enjoy the victory.

“It was a great result, great for the crowd. Goodison was at its best tonight and that was partly because the players performed and their attitude and commitment,” he told Sky Sports.

“It is a great start, but only a start. You don’t get carried away, but it isn’t very often you beat Manchester United. So I’ll enjoy it, the players will enjoy it but we will move on quickly.”

The Scot also warned that his team will be a force to be reckoned with this season and insisted Goodison Park would be a difficult ground for teams to visit.

“I thought the team that finished last season did well and I said if I could keep that team we would continue to do well,” he said.

“We’ve added one or two to it, but who knows? The Premier League is a tough league.

“As I alluded to earlier, I don’t think anyone was considering Everton tonight, there was too much attention on United. I think a lot of people forgot Everton aren’t a bad team and Goodison is a really difficult place to come and win.”

The game also saw Robin van Persie make his Manchester United debut, but Moyes said the pre-match hype had not distracted his players.

“We weren’t making any headlines before this match tonight, it was all about Manchester United, and rightly so, but you mustn’t forget Everton aren’t a bad side either,” he stated.

“Our defence did really well tonight because when we got the goal as expected United put us under lots of pressure.

“If you lose concentration or turn off for a minute they are likely to punish you but I think we defended really well tonight and we caused them some problems with the ball.”

Alex Ferguson said he did not use van Persie enough against Everton.

“We played around him too much, we didn’t show enough penetration,” Ferguson said.

“With Robin in your team you know you want to use his ability against centre-backs in situations he is very good at – but we didn’t use him enough.”

Ferguson had to deploy a make-shift defence with Michael Carrick at centre-back and Antonio Valencia at right-back, with Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Rio Ferdinand and Jonny Evans all injured, but refused to criticise the backline despite struggling to cope with Fellaini.

“He (Fellaini) is a handful: he is a big, tall, gangly lad and they just lumped the ball forward to him, that’s all they did,” the Scot said.

“They worked from that base all the time and they got a goal from him, so it’s justified.

“Centre-back is a problem but we coped quite well, I don’t think you can criticise their performance in that respect.

“It was just difficult to handle him when they were knocking these balls up to him.

“Michael did fine, good on the ball and applied himself well, they all applied themselves well.”