BRIGHTON, Feb 1 : Everton boss David Moyes fired a broadside at referees after he was booked for briefly entering the pitch to celebrate Beto’s dramatic stoppage-time equaliser in Saturday’s 1-1 draw away at Brighton & Hove Albion.
Brighton looked set to take all three points when Beto equalised in the dying stages, finding the back of the net in the sixth minute of added time to spark wild celebrations from the visitors while the home side sank to their knees.
Moyes, who was inside his technical area, immediately ran on to the pitch in joy and pumped his fists in the air before returning to the dugout, after which he was booked by the referee.
A furious Moyes questioned why officials would punish managers for showing emotion at crucial moments.
“Imagine booking for celebrating. Who wants to see managers getting booked for celebrating? I don’t think I’d have danced down if the goal was in the 55th minute,” Moyes told reporters.
“It means they’ve got nothing about them at all. No thoughts about what football means or what it means to the managers without absolutely just saying, ‘No, you just can’t step outside that line and I’m going to book you’.”
The result moved Everton provisionally up to eighth in the standings and when asked if he would do it again, the 62-year-old said: “I bloody will do it again!
“Actually, I think if I had been a bit more mobile, I might have done a knee slide. That would have got me a yellow as well. So I might as well have gone the whole hog.”
