Toffees sweet over home draw - Sport in brief - Evening Standard
       

Toffees sweet over home draw

Everton were rewarded for their destruction of Aston Villa in the FA Cup with a home quarter-final in Sunday night's draw.

They will face the winners of the replay between Middlesbrough and West Ham over the weekend of March 7 and 8 and Everton boss David Moyes is grateful to be playing at Goodison Park.

Moyes said: "You won't get me making any wild claims, but the best you can ask for is a home ties in the last eight."

Everton overpowered Villa with a 3-1 victory courtesy of goals from Jack Rodwell, a Mikel Arteta penalty and Tim Cahill's clincher in the closing minutes while Villa replied through James Milner's spot-kick.

Moyes added: "The team has been very good, very strong. They want to beat whatever is put in front of them. They should be excited, they are enjoying their game.

"They believe that when we get our injured players all back we will have a chance of achieving more. The win over Villa was an excellent performance against a very good side. We deserved it."

Villa boss Martin O'Neill insisted referee Martin Atkinson was right not to send off Stiliyan Petrov for the handball on the line which preceded Rodwell's Everton opener.

Atkinson played advantage after Petrov had handled Cahill's header.

"I don't see how Petrov can be sent off as well as giving them a goal," said O'Neill. "The referee played advantage for the shot to be put into the net. If he had not done that it would have been a penalty and a sending-off.

He added: "I felt we should have got something out of that. It was a frenetic start with three quick goals. But from then on we started to gain control of the game and while it was always tough, we were very much in it at 1-2 down."

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