Moyes: Everton paid price for poor first half

Everton boss David Moyes said the Toffees below-par first half performance ultimately cost his side a 2-1 defeat at Tottenham.

"We didn't deserve anything in the first half, that is for sure," Moyes told evertonTV. "But by the end of the game we probably deserved something out of it. We just gave ourselves too big a mountain to climb in the first place."

Moyes was pleased with the response after the interval but said his players owed it to the supporters, adding: "It was a spirited second half but they needed it. After the first half performance they needed it and after the performance in midweek against Sporting they needed it, because they weren't good enough. The second half I can look at and say the supporters got their money's worth out of us, but they didn't in midweek or the first half today."

Landon Donovan missed one particularly gilt-edged chance to level the game, and the manager confessed it may have proved a turning point if the American had converted.

"Landon's miss is one we're looking at and probably saying if that goes in it's two each with 10 minutes to go, we've got the momentum and we may well have gone on and won the game."