Sunderland 1-1 Everton - instant reaction from the Stadium of Light
Everton took an early lead against Sunderland but were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw
David Moyes said he felt Thierno Barry’s first-half miss was the crucial moment in the game as Sunderland battled back to draw 1-1 with Everton on Monday night.
Everton had taken a deserved lead through Iliman Ndiaye and were presented with a golden opportunity to double that advantage when Barry smashed a cross from Jack Grealish over the bar around half an hour into the game. Sunderland rallied and equalised just after half time through Granit Xhaka’s deflected effort.
Moyes was left frustrated his side didn’t make of their early dominance but conceded that the Black Cats were in the end good value for their point.
“I think after 30 minutes I'd have been disappointed if I'd only been going home with a point,” Moyes said.
“I think after 90 I was quite pleased to have had a point. Look, we played well. I think the miss we had from [Thierno] Barry to make us 2-0 took the wind out of our sails.
“I think after that they just started to get a bit of strength from us missing the chance. We'd played well enough the first 20-30 minutes but we didn't play well at all in the second half. We were so poor. I think we played well for periods in quite a lot of games. We played well for a period at Man City. We played well for a period at Tottenham Hotspur.
“We certainly played well tonight for a period against Sunderland. I think you need to give Sunderland a wee bit of credit. They looked as if the manager had got into them a bit at half time and they came out of the traps a bit more in the second half.
“The bigger thing is they gained a goal after 30 seconds or something after the start. Let's be fair, the shot wasn't going to beat the goalkeeper. We were a bit unlucky about the deflection. That gave them even greater strength to make it difficult. All those factors didn't help us perform any better in the second half. We had two or three brilliant chances near the end to probably sneak it and we didn't.”
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Why Régis Le Bris thought it was a ‘good point’ for Sunderland
The Sunderland head coach was asked if his primary emotion after the game was frustration but said that wasn’t quite the case.
“Not really, because I think this league is so tough, it's a good reminder of how hard it is to win a single point in that league,” Le Bris said.
“We started really well, so we might forget that we are still a promoted team, with young lads, not experienced and so on, so it's a good point to be fair.”
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