‘Brave’ Andy Johnson not to blame – David Moyes

Sep 21 2007 by Chris Beesley, Liverpool Daily Post

DAVID MOYES insisted that penalty villain Andrew Johnson should be admired for stepping up to the penalty spot three times at Goodison Park last night even though none of his efforts ultimately counted.

Despite dominating their UEFA Cup first round first leg tie, Everton were held to a hugely frustrating 1-1 draw by unknowns Metalist Kharkiv, a result which puts the Ukrainians in pole position for the second leg in 13 days’ time.

The hosts started brightly in a game that was delayed for 30 minutes because of crowd congestion but despite leading 1-0 at the interval thanks to a Joleon Lescott header from James McFadden’s right wing corner-kick, they were pegged back in a dramatic and bizarre second half.

Everton should have wrapped the game up when they were awarded a penalty following a foul on Lescott while Seweryn Gancarczyk was dismissed in the following melee.

Although Johnson fired his initial spot-kick into the centre of the goal, he was forced to retake his effort when referee Stuchlik of Austria adjudged Victor Anichebe to have encroached.

Keeper Oleksandr Goryainov guessed right when Johnson’s next effort which went to his left and Metalist grabbed an all-important away goal when Edmar made an instant impact after being teed up by fellow substitute Hicham Mahdoufi.

Everton were given another lifeline when Anichebe was tripped by Okesandr Babych who was then sent off for his second bookable offence but this time Johnson fired well over the bar.

Despite the misses, manager Moyes backed the England international striker who is yet to score this season. He said: “Andy grabbed it, he wanted it, so you admire him for that. I didn’t have any qualms if he wanted it. That’s what happens.

“I think when somebody says ‘No I’m having it, I’ve missed and I’m going to show that I can score the next one’, then you have to admire their bravery in wanting to do that. I think he wants a goal badly.

“We’ll assess how Andy is tomorrow and move on. He’ll need a bit of picking up but we all do.”

Moyes felt that his side were unfortunate to have to retake the penalty but believed that if the referee was being so strict then the spot-kick should have been taken a third time after more encroachment.

He said: “I thought the retaken penalty was harsh, their boy was further in the box than ours. I’ve seen it right along the angle.

“Also, if he doesn’t allow the first one then he’s got to pull back as well.

“He’s not given the ‘goal’ because people have gone into the box for the first penalty but for the second one they’ve gone into the box again and he’s not asked for a re-take on that.

“Because of that we should’ve had the game sewn up. It would have been 2-0 with them down to 10 men and we should have looked to a third goal but it all changed really.”

Moyes admitted that his side now face an uphill struggle to reach the group stages following their 1-1 draw and improvement is needed for the second leg.

He said: “We’re going to have to win there and play better than we did overall tonight. I thought they (Metalist) played quite well. At the moment we’re behind, at the moment we’re out of the tie because of conceding the goal.

“There’s no doubt there were players missing tonight who would have given us that extra composure – we can’t hide that fact.”

Everton went into the game without Mikel Arteta and while Moyes revealed he had hoped the Basque midfielder could have played last night, he is unsure when he will return.

He said: “Mikel has kicked the ground and damaged his ankle, I don’t know how long it’s going to be, I’d hoped that he was going to be okay (for this game) but he wasn’t.”