Ainsley Maitland-Niles scored a stunning 96th minute equaliser to earn Everton a draw on his debut for the club against Manchester United
Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Sky Sports)
Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Sky Sports)
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Everton hero Ainsley Maitland-Niles vowed to work harder than his team-mates after admitting that the draw salvaged by his last gasp heroics against Manchester United felt like a win.
Maitland-Niles had been introduced as a 77th minute substitute at Hill Dickinson Stadium when the Blues were 1-0 down to a Bryan Mbeumo goal.
Tyrique George fired the hosts level with a fierce strike past Senne Lammens in the 83rd minute, but five minutes later the Blues looked to have lost it when United substitute Benjamin Sesko headed home.
Enter Maitland-Niles, whose remarkable strike from distance flew into the top corner to earn his new club a point just days after making the move to Merseyside from Lyon.
"It felt like a win," Maitland-Niles told Sky Sports after the match.
"We dug deep and managed to get a point in the end. The crowd were with us and we were fighting to the end and that's why you get those results."
Maitland-Niles - who had only scored one previous Premier League goal prior to Sunday afternoon, a strike for Arsenal in a 5-1 defeat to Liverpool in December 2018 - admitted the nature of his goal did take him somewhat by surprise, but he vowed to use it as the perfect springboard for his Blues career.
"It's amazing, everyone wants to start off like that and thankfully I did," he said.
"The ball fell to me on the edge of the box, I put my foot through it and it ended up in the top corner which I'm happy about.
"I came in to work hard. It's a team full of hard workers so I fit right in. I'm going to show I can fit right in and pull my weight and give as much as everyone else, if not more."