Everton slipped to another loss away at Liverpool in Saturday’s early kickoff, losing 2-1 this time. Going down two goals early in the game after a slow start made this result almost inevitable for the Blues, but once again they leave Anfield feeling aggrieved at some of the strange decisions made by the referee, Darren England this time.
The most egregious of them all was an addition of just three minutes at the end of the game given that there was one goal. six substitutions and time lost for an injury
to James Garner, along with Dominic Szoboszlai doing his best Cristiano Ronaldo impression lining up a freekick, and then sending it into Row Z.
Also the referee choosing to book Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall for taking a freekick too quickly as he tried to restart play was incredibly bemusing. After the game, manager David Moyes was understandably unhappy at the referee.
“We have been here so many times and I don’t want to sound like and old fart saying the same things but I found three minutes amazing at the end of the second half. We wanted to play quickly, I have seen lots of teams score from quick free-kick but we couldn’t do anything quickly because we had to wait on the referees whistle all the time. I found some of the decisions really strange. We have come to get used to that and everyone is aware of that.
“The bigger thing is the game seemed to be controlled by the referee, we couldn’t start anything quickly. We couldn’t play. I have had played plenty of games where teams have taken quick free-kicks and it hasn’t been the referees’ whistle.
“He never allowed us to get the game under way fast when we wanted to. I found it strange there was only three minutes [of stoppage time] . If Liverpool were 2-0 down I’m not sure if three minutes would have been put up.”
England did not call for a foul on Iliman Ndiaye in the build-up to the Red’s first goal.
“I have not seen it again I couldn’t be sure. I probably would have said it wasn’t a foul but there is a lot of other things that I could have said, but I won’t if you don’t mind.
“The boys never gave up and showed a great deal of resilience.”
On his own team’s slow start, Moyes rued not creating enough in a cagey game.
“A lot of things that weren’t so good in the first half, a lot of good things in the second half. We probably just let it get a bit far away from us. The players never gave up. We did some good things but not enough to get the result today.
“There wasn’t enough [chances]. Liverpool didn’t have many more than us but they were more clinical. They looked more decisive in the final third. Not an easy game for anyone coming here, never mind us.
“We were much closer. The performance in second half warranted to get something but we gave too much in the first half.”
Have Everton frittered away a positive start to the season now as they sit on seven points with five games played?
“We showed signs of what we can do. This might be the hardest away games so we have to accept it but a lot of good things going on. We have won a lot of games away from home and I am hoping we can continue that.”
