English Premier League: Moyes happy with the win as Tony Pulis blames the referee
Everton recorded their third win of the season in ten matches in the English Premier League as Yakubu’s winner gave the Toffees all three points at the Goodison Park. Yakubu was on hand to save his team from a disappoint draw against the Potters as he netted
his first goal from open play since April, 2010 in the last English Premier League season. It was also remarkably the first Everton goal by any Everton “striker” in the 2010-2011 season, a moment to savour for all the Merseyside blues fans and their manager
as well.
In the past David Moyes had declared his discontent over the fact that his strikers were not hitting the mark for the club. However with the Nigerian striker off the mark in the new league season now and Louis Saha well on his way to recovery by cementing
his place on the bench, the young Scottish manager told the press, "It is great for Yak to get the goal, if you work hard I think the supporters appreciate you and your team-mates appreciate you. I think Yak has certainly improved his work and he is starting
to feel more confident himself. It would be great if we could get back the old Yakubu. He is certainly getting much more like it and I think you can sense the crowds feel that way. I thought he held the ball up well, brought people into the game. He had a
chance in the first half and I am sure he will be disappointed he didn't do better. You need your strikers to do something. Top clubs have strikers who do things to win games - Rooney, Drogba, and Torres.”
Everton are now unbeaten in their last five games but their most prominent result of the season came in the Merseyside derby where they defeated a disappointing Liverpool side by two goals to nil. Everton’s manager elaborated on his comments regarding their
match against Stoke by saying,” We needed someone to do something today and it was Yak skipping past and rifling one home.” Moyes also paid his respects to their night’s opponents. He said, "Stoke are a decent side. They are strong defensively and a threat
going forward. For anyone to have thought any different would have been insulting to Stoke. I think they are an improving side and it is a great three points for us really."
Despite all the praise, Stoke will definitely be hurting due to the fact that they have now suffered three successive league defeats in the English Premiership. They also exited the Carling Cup in the mid-week matches as they lost their tie against West
Ham United. Stoke’s manager, Tony Pulis was particularly irked at referee Lee Probert who disallowed his team’s goal during the matchup against Everton. Stoke’s manager lamented his team’s luck with regard to refereeing decisions as he expressed, "We are disappointed.
We did our best and had a right go. I'm really disappointed with the disallowed goal. It's a really poor decision which has gone against us again. I thought it was a very even game. It was tight and when you get opportunities in tight games you have to take
them. I am not blaming the referee for the goal Everton scored - there were two mistakes by Danny Collins and Abdoulaye Faye.”
The Stoke City manager went onto comment on his team’s hectic fixture list in the past seven days as he commented, “We have had three really tough games this week. We didn't get back to Stoke until 3.30 on Thursday morning. Then to come to Goodison Park,
which is always a tough place to come, and give the performance we have done, we are very disappointed not to come away with something."
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