James Garner spoke following Everton's 2-2 draw with Manchester United in their final Premier League Summer Series game
James Garner claims that referee Thomas Bramall admitted at half-time that he was guilty of a howler in Everton’s final Premier League Summer Series game by awarded Manchester United a soft penalty.
The Sheffield-born official pointed to the spot at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta when Red Devils winger Amad theatrically flung himself to the turf after Blues centre-back James Tarkowski put his arm across him. Garner said: “The second goal was a good goal, but I don’t think we deserved to lose the game and apparently, it wasn’t a penalty and. I was right there and I don’t want to say too much but the referee even said at half-time that he got it wrong and the assistant got it wrong as well because he didn’t say anything.
“It’s a bit too late to be honest, isn’t it? It’s a pre-season game, so hopefully it doesn’t happen in the Premier League. I don’t think we were ever out of the game. If anything, I thought we were the better team and we didn’t deserve to go 1-0 down.”
After Bruno Fernandes fired Ruben Amorim’s side ahead from 12 yards out, Iliman Ndiaye restored parity, but not before Garner himself – who netted the first winning goal for Everton at Hill Dickinson Stadium with a free-kick in a 2-1 behind closed doors victory over Port Vale the day before the Blues flew out to the USA – went close again with a similar effort that was palmed away by Altay Bayindir. The 24-year-old who was playing deeper in midfield, said: “It was a really nice move for our first goal. It’s good for our attacking players to get goals and assists for our midfielders – it was a lovely ball and a lovely goal.
“I’m just trusting myself a little bit. I’m not worrying about what could go wrong but just trusting my technique and we’ve seen that a little bit today.
“That’s the role I’ve done since I was a kid. That’s how I came up through the academy, playing as a number six and I felt at home in there today.”
After sweltering conditions of over 35 degrees for Everton’s open training session in Atlanta on Friday, the temperatures dropped over what was a wet weekend in the city, but the weather doesn’t come into consideration anyway at the air-conditioned Mercedes-Benz Stadium where the retractable roof was closed. Garner said: “It’s clear to see, the first game and the second game were so, so hard to run. We’re elite athletes but even for us, it was tough to get about the field.
“When you see the temperatures drop, you see the tempo was a lot higher from both sides. The tempo was good, the game was good and I think it was a fair result.
“It wasn’t a win today, but it was probably our best performance in the Summer Series. We just need to take it into our next pre-season game and then hopefully we’ll be ready for the Monday.
“We all just need to remain fit as it’s well-documented that we’ve not brought as many players in as we’d like to, so hopefully we’ll get a few more players through the door and the other players stay fit.”
Garner is now looking forward to Everton’s final pre-season friendly against Roma on Saturday with a capacity crowd at the 52,769 capacity Hill Dickinson Stadium. He said: “I can’t wait. Even though we played there the other week, this will be what feels like the first proper game, and it will be a packed stadium.”