Fowler ‘will not face action’

Everton 2 Manchester City 1

Everton overtook their entire points total for last season with a victory that keeps them in the Premiership top three thanks to Marcus Bent’s second half header. Tim Cahill’s effort had given Everton the lead, cancelled out by a Fowler header before the break.

Fowler, who was fined five years ago following his celebrations after scoring for Liverpool against Everton, netted an equaliser, then raced behind the goal and down the touchline smacking his hand on top of his head.

Referee Phil Dowd booked the 29-year-old for the incident which resulted in Everton fans taunting the striker for the rest of the game.

City boss Keegan admitted he spoke with police about the incident but revealed they told him they would not be taking any action.

The remainder of the match was a bad-tempered affair after Fowler’s celebration, ending with Negouai being red-carded for a lunge at Bent.

Keegan, who also had to deal with the Joey Barton Christmas party this week, said: “The referee said he booked Robbie for leaving the pitch.

“You can understand Robbie being delighted to have scored at Everton, and the day you ask players to just turn round and walk back to the centre circle like they did 60 years ago are long gone.

“They would deserve to be booked for showing no emotion! Robbie is big enough and been around long enough to know that when he scores at Everton the home fans are not going to say ‘well done Robbie, you are a great guy’.

“Robbie got his goal and enjoyed it. If you don’t enjoy scoring goals, what is the point?

“I have had a conversation with the police and they have said they will not be taking any action. They give him stick, he scores and he gives it back. The sense of humour around these parts is usually very good. If you give it you have to take it.”

Keegan’s view on the red card for Negouai was equally defensive.

He said: “The sending off was very harsh. The referee has allowed the feeling from the Danny Mills tackle to continue into the next incident. That is poor refereeing. If he looks at the incident in isolation you will see a very bad tackle on (Sylvain) Distin that should have been a free-kick. The ball broke and Christian was going for the ball.

“The other lad was going in the same way. The referee was going down the line of whoever steps out of line next is in trouble. He has made a wrong decision and I would not protect players when they are in the wrong. But if it had been Bent doing that to our lad, I do not think it would have been the same decision.”

Mills had been involved in a clash with Thomas Gravesen minutes beforehand. Keegan took Mills off and Everton boss David Moyes substituted the Dane.

Keegan said: “I felt it could get worse. Gravesen was upset about the tackle, it was two tough guys going for the ball but the referee booked Danny so he felt he was more in the wrong. I would not disagree with that.

“Any more incidents would have had the crowd baying for blood, so I just took him off. He is not happy but I would not like to see a player dancing off smiling.”

Moyes sent coach Alan Irvine to the after-match interviews and he praised Everton’s recovery to extend their unbeaten run to seven games.

Irvine said: “It’s a great start to the holiday period, they are a very good side with attacking players that can cause you problems and we did very well against them.

“They had an off day at Blackburn and just said we had to get back to the way we had been playing.

“Everyone saw we didn’t play well there but we have shown we can bounce back. We had a pleasing response this time around.”

EVERTON: Martyn, Hibbert, Stubbs, Weir, Pistone, Carsley, Watson (Ferguson 73), Gravesen (Yobo 81), Cahill, Kilbane, Bent (McFadden 90).

MAN CITY: James, Mills (Onuoha 80), Dunne, Distin, Jordan, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Bosvelt, Sibierski, Fowler, Macken (Negouai 80), Anelka.

Referee: P Dowd (Staffordshire).