Moyes furious with wasteful Everton

David Moyes says Everton needed to make more of their first-half dominance in their 2-1 loss to Reading on Saturday.

Moyes’ team were on top for most of the first half, taking the lead after 10 minutes through Steven Naismith.

However, after Everton failed to kill the game off, Adam le Fondre equalised with a header before securing the win from the penalty spot.

The visitors were also denied two spot-kicks of their own, Martin Atkinson waving off appeals firstly when Kaspars Gorkss brought Naismith down inside the area, and then when a Nikica Jelavic shot struck Sean Morrison’s arm.

“I think I’m as (angry) as I’ve ever been after that,” Moyes told reporters. “I’m not angry at the referee, he should have given a penalty kick in the first half when it hits (Morrison’s) hand. But I’m more angry at my team as we should have scored.

“It’s down to us to do it. We didn’t punish them and we always left the door slightly ajar for them to come in, and they did do.

“I’m not going to talk too much because I’m not a great lover of the officials. I think certainly one of them is a penalty. I’ve got no problem with the Seamus Coleman (foul), it’s a definite penalty for Reading, so he got that right.”

Everton have been praised for the quality of their football so far this season, which has seen them challenging for the Champions League places.

Moyes insisted they played well in the first 45 minutes at the Madejski, but said they need to start putting games to bed.

“The way they played in the first half was outstanding but that’s not enough to win the games,” he said. “We’re not scoring the goals and when we’re getting the opportunities to put the game to bed, we’re not taking them.

“In the opening 10 minutes of the second half we encouraged pressure and gave the ball away a couple of times in our own half quite simply. We gave them encouragement.”

The Merseyside outfit’s captain Phil Neville was missing from the match-day squad, and the Scot revealed that his skipper will be out for another six to eight weeks after undergoing knee surgery.

“He had an operation yesterday on his knee. It’ll probably keep him out for 6-8 weeks. His leadership was missed,” Moyes said.

Reading boss Brian McDermott was delighted to see his side record their first win of the campaign, and he hopes it can kick-start their campaign.

“Obviously it’s a relief,” McDermott said. “I’m just so pleased for the players, It’s been coming for quite some time. But the only thing that’s relevant is the amount of points you’ve got on the board.

“I said to the players ‘forget the result let’s just play the game’ because everyone has been saying ‘you haven’t won’ and that can play on people’s minds. I think it can (be a psychological turning point).”