David Moyes urges Everton to ‘have a go at Europe’ after fightback sinks Fulham

David Moyes urged Everton to push for European qualification after their second-half turnaround at Fulham.

It has been nine seasons since the Toffees’ last featured in the Europa League, but a 2-1 victory at Craven Cottage kept them in the mix for a potential return to continental competition and left them 14 points clear of relegation trouble.

Everton’s unbeaten run on the road looked set to end after Vitalii Mykolenko scored an unfortunate 18th-minute own goal before Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall levelled after 75 minutes and then his corner was punched into his own net by Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno.

“We did well to make sure it was only 1-0 at half-time and we played much better in the second half,” Moyes said.

“Hugely important (win) and I think it probably keeps us away from the big R word at the bottom of the league, that’s for sure.

“The idea now is to try and push on, but every win you get in the Premier League, you get quite excited and then you lose a game and can easily be at the wrong end of the league.

“I don’t want to come in here and say we’re trying to avoid relegation. I don’t want to do that because Everton have had too much bad news and bad publicity, so I’d rather come in here and say we’re having a go at Europe.

“You might laugh at me in a few weeks’ time and say, ‘How stupid was I’, but I’d rather be positive and try to make the players know that is what I want. They do know, they know as well and they are well aware that we’d like to do that.”

Moyes sat in the stands at Craven Cottage as he served a touchline ban following the yellow card he received for his celebrations on the pitch at Brighton last Saturday.

The former Manchester United boss accepted his punishment but pointed out the lack of consistency, with no cautions handed out when Arsenal’s backroom team burst on to the pitch in midweek when they scored late on in their Carabao Cup semi-final against Chelsea.

“It wasn’t fun watching it up there,” Moyes said.

“It is a bit sad if you’re going to get that for showing emotion if you like. No doubt I broke the rules. No doubt I ran on the pitch, but just check how many people from the Arsenal bench ran on the pitch when they scored the other night.”

Fulham boss Marco Silva bemoaned the profligacy of his team after they squandered several first-half chances and declined to criticise referee Stuart Attwell too heavily after Leno was crowded out by Jake O’Brien for Everton’s winner.

Silva added: “He was interfering, but to be honest, I am so disappointed and we should be disappointed with ourselves much more than talk about the referee.

“It is really the moment to look for us.

“We have to be more more brave, to be more aggressive in all the moments we conceded the goals.”