Everton boss David Moyes had praise for Mansfield Town's defensive work after his Premier League stars laboured to achieve a 2-0 home Carabao Cup Second Round win at the new Hill Dickinson Stadium tonight.
Stags rarely looked like scoring themselves but made life hard for the Toffees before a near sell-out crowd until two superb goals at the start and end of the second half saw a very strong Everton side progress.
“I thought Mansfield did a good job tonight, though I thought we controlled the game,” said Moyes.
“They had some moments, but for most of it we were the side who were on top.
Action during the Carabao Cup second round tie, Everton v Mansfield Town FC at the brand-new Hill Dickinson Stadium, 27 August 2025 Photo credit Chris & Jeanette Holloway / The Bigger Picture.mediaplaceholder image
Action during the Carabao Cup second round tie, Everton v Mansfield Town FC at the brand-new Hill Dickinson Stadium, 27 August 2025 Photo credit Chris & Jeanette Holloway / The Bigger Picture.media
“But they did a great job defensively which will stand them in good stead if they have to play against teams who are going to have a lot of the ball against them.
“They got a good bit of practice tonight in how to defend.”
He added: “I thought we played well tonight. I have probably done 100 of these games in my career and probably 99 of them have been rubbish.
“But tonight I thought we actually played well enough, though we weren't clinical enough.
“But our football was fine. For the best part of 40 minutes we dominated – they probably had three or four minutes before half-time.
“There were lots of things there I quite liked and lots of things we could have done better.
“Ultimately we had to navigate a side who had just won four on the bounce and started the league quite well, so the players have done okay.”
Moyes named a strong side and a strong bench too and said: “Let's be fair – we are probably not going to be a side that is going to be competitive at the top end of the league, so we have to try to make sure we are as competitive as we can be in cups.
“Everybody wants to win the cups. But who you draw can be decisive and you can get knocked out early.”
On the Toffees' new home, he said: “It was just about a sell out tonight and it was amazing to get those numbers in tonight.
“The kick off was delayed probably with everyone getting used to travelling in here for an evening game.
“I really think the crowd are playing a big part here and they're seeing us try to evolve and get better and we want to bring in good, attacking options to hopefully build on the strong defensive units we have had over the last few years here.”
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