David Moyes, the Everton manager, berates the referee Martin
Atkinson for blowing the final whistle too early. Photograph: Tom
Jenkins for the Guardian
First Manchester United dropped Wayne Rooney, then they dropped two
points. By the end of a frantic 90 minutes at Goodison Park, not to
mention the extra three in which Everton stunned their opponents with
the comeback of the season so far for a 3-3 draw, it was hard to
decide which story was the more sensational.
Rooney's absence certainly dominated the earlier part of the
afternoon. Despite declaring everyone fit the day before, as well
as claiming that it was impossible to field anything less than
full-strength sides in important Premier League games, Sir Alex Ferguson diplomatically
omitted his erring striker and spared him a torrid time at the
hands of supporters who formerly idolised him.
"We made the decision to leave Wayne out simply because of the
terrible abuse he always gets here," the Manchester United manager
explained. "We didn't want to subject him to any more of that. We
have a fantastic squad at this club and we are prepared to use
it."
That thinking appeared to set United in good stead as they
overcame the setback of a Steven Pienaar goal to take a 3-1 lead by
midway through the second half, with goals from Darren Fletcher,
Nemanja Vidic and Dimitar Berbatov and some sparkling contributions
by the timeless Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs.
But for Tim Howard's reactions in the Everton goal United would
have been out of sight before the end, as they might have been had
Berbatov and Nani accepted late chances to increase their lead.
Even when the game entered stoppage time Everton did not seem to
have a hope, yet two crosses from Leighton Baines and two headers
from Tim Cahill later (the second leading to a goal for Mikel
Arteta), United had lost two points and the afternoon had been
turned on its head.
"It's amazing, we've thrown it away, like we did in the Fulham
game," Ferguson said. "You have to have determination in situations
like that, but we were so wasteful with our chances. We could have
scored five or six in the second half with great opportunities and
to lose two goals in injury time is unthinkable. We had it under
control and the game was finished – even when they scored a second.
It was a terrible end for us. We have thrown the points away and
hopefully at the end of the season we don't sit back and regret
it."
United play Rangers and Liverpool next, so they will have to
recover from this disappointment quickly. Ferguson promised Rooney
would take part in the Champions League game against the Glasgow
club on Tuesday, along with Rio Ferdinand, who has apparently
recovered from injury but was not involved here.
Everton, with two points from four games, entertain Newcastle on
Saturday, and David Moyes hopes this draw that felt
like a victory will improve self-belief. "I thought we played
really well, even if the scoreline didn't always show it," the
Everton manager said. "Even at 3-1 down I never thought we deserved
to be out of the game. We matched United for everything except
perhaps clinical finishing."
Moyes ended up on the pitch at the final whistle, remonstrating
with the referee, Martin Atkinson, for blowing it too early. As if
the game had not already contained enough incident and excitement,
Moyes was annoyed when Atkinson brought it to a close as Phil
Jagielka was in the act of shooting at goal.
"I don't know precisely how much time was left, but neither does
anyone," he argued. "There were two goals in stoppage time to take
account of and there may only have been 10 seconds or less left,
but we had just scored two goals in two minutes and gone straight
upfield from a corner, and before the move can develop the referee
has blown.
"I don't think anyone in the ground would have complained had he
blown after the shot, wherever the ball had ended up. People don't
pay their money to see referees, they come here for
excitement."
Moyes and Ferguson apart, no one was actually complaining on
that score.