Moyes pleased with night’s work in Belarus

EVERTON manager David Moyes last night praised his side after they chalked up their second successive victory in the Europa League.

A goal from Tim Cahill 13 minutes from time saw them complete a 2-1 come-from-behind defeat of BATE Borisov in Belarus.

Everton were up against it as they went into the match without 10 first team players and fell behind to a goal from Dmitri Likhtarovich in the first half.

However, the Goodison side dug deep and Marouane Fellaini equalised in the 68th minute.

Cahill’s goal completed the comeback and BATE finished second-best like AEK Athens before in the campaign.

Moyes said: “It was a really pleasing result considering the number of players who were not available.

“It was a resilient performance, which in the end allowed us to get the victory.

“I thought we played better in the first half but we were wasteful with our passing.

“BATE scored an excellent goal but we regrouped and managed to get the goals we needed.’’

With Benfica losing to AEK Athens, Everton are now top of the group with maximum points. Moyes said: “It’s always nice to win away in Europe and this was an important victory.

“We were hoping to take points early in the campaign and we are now in a good position. We want to stay there and keep progressing in this competition.”

BATE coach Viktor Goncharenko was disappointed at the way his side lost the match.

He said: “I am very upset we conceded two goals as we controlled the game.

“We made mistakes in the second half and while there are still four games to play, we could now struggle to qualify.”

BATE: Veremko, Yurevich, Shitov, Sosnovskiy, Bordachov, Pavlov (Volodko 78), Likhtarovich (Goaryan 81), Krivets, Rodionov, Nekhaychik, Skavysh (Stasevich 28).

EVERTON: Howard, Gosling, Hibbert, Distin, Baines, Osman, Cahill, Fellaini, Bilyaletdinov (Baxter 90), Jo, Yakubu (Agard 79).

Referee: Pavel Balaj (Romania).