DAVID MOYES has stood by his decision to keep Marouane Fellaini on the field against Hull on Saturday – despite him picking up the booking that rules him out of both forthcoming Merseyside derbies.

The Everton manager insists that he had to make three points the priority on Saturday as his side consolidated their place in the top six with a 2-0 victory.

Moyes decided not to risk the chances of Fellaini picking up his 10th booking of the season at Macclesfield in the FA Cup a week previously, and left him out of the third round tie.

Bringing him back against Hull was justified by him heading in the opening goal. But after Mikel Arteta’s outstanding free-kick made it 2-0 at half-time, Moyes admitted he agonised over whether to keep Fellaini on.

The decision to do so backfired just two minutes after the break when the 21-year-old picked up the booking that gives him an automatic two-game ban – both against Liverpool.

But Moyes says that the memory of his side surrendering a 2-0 lead to Newcastle at Goodison earlier in the campaign affected his thinking.

He said: “At half-time, the decision was ‘do we take him off or do we not?’

“My decision was to stay with it for 10-15 minutes and change it, but the decision didn’t go the way we wanted it to go.

“But the important thing was the points. I wasn’t thinking ahead to another game when I played the game.

“We were 2-0 up against Newcastle and drew so I wasn’t going to put myself in a position whereby we would jeopardise the result.”

The offence that prompted Martin Atkinson to brandish the yellow card was for a high foot but he had persistently warned Fellaini throughout the first half over a series of minor fouls.

However, Moyes feels that Hull set out to target the midfielder in an attempt to attract the referee’s attention – and he also feel that Atkinson could have handled the situation more sensitively.

He said: “I’m sure the ref knew that Fellaini had nine bookings before the game, don’t worry about that.

“Our referees in recent weeks have been very good, but I’m not too sure today.

“And I think the referee should probably have a look at today’s. It would be important for them to study the referee’s performance.

“There were an awful lot of free-kicks on Fellaini during the game. I don’t know if they set out to target him because they just have to win the game.

“He was booked for persistent fouling, so you accept that when he fouls on the touchline, but the others were just when he was competing for the ball.

“In the main, he has been hard done-by. The referee could have given him a warning.

“If he thought it was a free-kick at the start of the second half, but he should have given him a warning.