Roberto Martinez’s men took the over Lukaku lead at Carrow Road but could not hold onto to it as Norwich City fought back from a goal down to hold Everton to a 1-1 draw on Saturday.
Alex Neil, Norwich City manager (on improving their second half):
“In terms of first half I felt Everton could have been leading one or two, nil at half time. I thought they were the better side. I thought the intensity of our game was poor and I thought once they scored the goal you could sense unrest in the fans and I think that bled into the players. They looked a bit timid and a bit scared to go and express themselves. Obviously that wasn’t good enough first half and we were fortunate it was only 1-0. We had a chat at half time and had a good discussion in terms of where we are and what’s acceptable. I think that all the questions I posed to them at half time, they came and answered the second half. Our intensity was a lot better, I think the fact they got their goal so early in the game helped us and I think our use of the ball and how we can play grew as the game went on.”
Roberto Martinez, Everton manager (on disappointment of failing to claim all three points):
“We are very disappointed because our first half performance was as good as you are going to see away from home in this league. It doesn’t happen, nobody gives you performances like that. I thought we were outstanding, not just on the ball, creating the amount of chances we created. The way we defended, the way we restricted Norwich, they had no threat whatsoever. From that point on…you will always get the home team having their say. Today is not that we saw a completely different second half, Norwich had momentum, Norwich had two corners early on and the first one ends up in the back of the net. Then they defended with a lot more belief, with a lot more intensity but we were the team looking for that winning goal. We created one or two chances, maybe not clear cut chances but overall the performance leaves you with a feeling of disappointment because that should have been a three point performance.”