Moyes hails resilient Toffees - 7M sport

Moyes hails resilient Toffees

Posted Thursday, October 01, 2009 by PA

Everton manager David Moyes praised his side after they chalked up their second successive victory in the Europa League.

A goal from Tim Cahill 13 minutes from time saw them complete a 2-1 come-from-behind defeat of BATE Borisov in Belarus.

Everton were up against it as they went into the match without 10 first team players and fell behind to a goal from Dmitri Likhtarovich in the first half.

However, the Goodison side dug deep and Marouane Fellaini equalised in the 68th minute.

Cahill's goal completed the comeback and BATE finished second-best, like AEK Athens earlier in the campaign.

Moyes lost Joseph Yobo to a thigh injury on the eve of the game and Tony Hibbert switched from right-back to centre defence.

Moyes said: "I thought Tony played really well, it was an outstanding performance by him and he slotted in as I hoped he would.

"It was a really pleasing result considering the number of players who were not available.

"It was a resilient performance, which in the end allowed us to get the victory.

"I thought we played better in the first half but we were wasteful with our passing.

"BATE scored an excellent goal but we regrouped and managed to get the goals we needed.

"Tim Cahill is always a threat in those kind of situations but he has probably not scored as many goals as he should have done recently."

With Benfica losing to AEK Athens, Everton are now top of the group with maximum points.

Moyes said: "It's always nice to win away in Europe and this was an important victory.

"We were hoping to take points early in the campaign and we are now in a good position. We want to stay there and keep progressing in this competition."

Yobo remains doubtful for the Barclays Premier League match against Stoke on Sunday and Moyes added: "Jo has got a thigh strain - it's not too bad, we don't think it's too serious."

BATE coach Viktor Goncharenko was disappointed at the way his side lost the match.

He said: "I am very upset we conceded two goals as we controlled the game.

"We made mistakes in the second half and while there are still four games to play, we could now struggle to qualify."

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