David Moyes hails his battling blues: Everton FC latest

09 November 2009 00:00
DAVID MOYES hailed Everton's resilience after they battled to a first Premier League win since the end of September with a 2-1 victory at West Ham, who slip back into the bottom three.[LNB]Louis Saha returned to the starting XI after he missed the midweek Europa League defeat to Benfica with a calf problem, and the French striker netted from 20 yards against the run of play on 26 minutes, which continued his fine scoring record against the Hammers.[LNB]Teenager Dan Gosling added a second just after the hour, but the home side made a fight of it following an own goal by Tony Hibbert.[LNB]'We have not played that well, so we cannot ask for any more,' said Moyes.[LNB]'When it was 2-0, I felt we had shored it up with nearly a perfect away performance where you have got the goals, but did not play that well.[LNB]'The key is always to find a winning formula, and today we have found one. But we need to play better than we have done.[LNB]'At the moment, we are lacking just a bit of quality. October was a tough month, with probably too many matches for the same group of players.[LNB]'Nevertheless, I thought they showed great character to hang in there at the end of what has been a difficult period for them.'[LNB]The defeat ended the Hammers' revival, which had seen them unbeaten for three matches after securing a morale-boosting win over Aston Villa at Upton Park last Wednesday night through a last-minute goal from Zavon Hines.[LNB]The England Under-21 forward was rewarded with a start following injury to Carlton Cole, and looked lively.[LNB]However, the 20-year-old missed two good chances to draw West Ham level after Hibbert had inexplicably booted a chip from substitute Junior Stanislas into his own net as the ball trickled towards the line.[LNB]Italian playmaker Alessandro Diamanti - who had helped turn the game against Arsenal last month, when West Ham recovered from 2-0 down to earn a draw - also made an impact from the bench, forcing Tim Howard into a fine save from his curling free-kick.[LNB]Hammers boss Gianfranco Zola once again could not fault his side's effort, but admitted he was at a loss to comprehend another defeat.

Source: Liverpool_Echo