David Moyes has revealed he spoke to Prime Minister Andy Burnham before Everton secured an important 2-0 win over Crystal Palace at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
The Everton boss was visited by Andy Gray ahead of the match and relayed a message to Burnham through Peter Reid, who was alongside the politician in the directors' box. Burnham wished Moyes luck for the game as he attended his first Premier League match since taking office.
First-half drama and decisive goals
Burnham left the stadium happy after goals from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Thierno Barry secured the win. Dewsbury-Hall opened the scoring at the end of an entertaining first half in which Palace missed several good chances. Jean-Philippe Mateta flicked over from close range and hit the post, while Eddie Nketiah was denied by a stunning Jordan Pickford save before Dewsbury-Hall's vicious finish.
Everton controlled the match after Barry headed in an Iliman Ndiaye cross just before the hour.
Moyes assesses the performance
On the performance, Moyes accepted Palace had chances but was clearly pleased with the outcome. He said: "I thought it was a good performance for lots of the game. We didn't do well enough on the transition in the first half, we should have got lots more chances from what we did."
"And when they transitioned because of the two different systems in the game and the way it played, when they transitioned I thought their chances were better than ours."
"Obviously, the goalkeeper [Pickford] makes a great save. It looks like the centre forward [Mateta] should have probably scored with the one that hits the post, I think. But I thought we had opportunities to have big chances, and I didn't think we did it as well in the early part of the first half."
"But the goal from Kiernan just before half-time, I thought the game sort of went to-and-fro a little bit. It was an incredibly open game, certainly in the first half… his goal was very good - it's a good start for him."
Praise for young players
While Everton's win was built on big moments from senior stars, Moyes heaped praise on his younger charges, with Harrison Armstrong, Hayden Hackney, Tyrique George and Merlin Rohl playing well.
Moyes said: "I thought Hayden's performance was good. I thought Harrison performed well. I thought Merlin performed well. So I think a lot of the ones who are relatively new to the team and the ones who I'm probably expecting to take a bit of time to settle, breaking them into the Premier League in some cases, I know it's not the case with Merlin or with Tyrique, but they're very young in the number of games they've got in the Premier League. Merlin went in at right back and is doing as well as anybody."
On the value of starting with a home win, the Blues boss added: "Our points total away from home last year was fantastic and if we reach that again this season, we'll be in another really good position. We just need to make sure that our home form is a bit more regular, if we can, and get a few more wins here. So to win today was really big for us."
