Graham Potter felt his West Ham United players were deserving of maximum reward at Everton after giving another committed performance.
The Hammers looked set for that outcome when Tomáš Souček curled into the bottom right-hand corner with 67 minutes played, only to be denied as the clock ticked over the 90-minute mark by Jake O’Brien’s header.
While Potter was naturally disappointed that the scoreboard read 1-1 at the final whistle, he nevertheless saw plenty from his team to encourage him as he goes into the season’s final stretch.
Following Monday night’s physically draining 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United, the visitors stood up to the test given to them by Everton and had further chances either side of Souček’s goal, with Jarrod Bowen forcing a couple of sharp saves from Jordan Pickford.
The points would ultimately be shared, but Potter could not fault the effort he saw on show.
I’m pleased with the players - I think they gave everything, for sure.
It was a committed performance again. They look like a team out there. We were a little bit disappointed with the first half as we felt we were a little bit deeper than we wanted to be, but I think we fixed that at half-time and in the second half we were a lot better, even though in the first half I still thought we had a couple of good opportunities.
I thought in the second half we controlled more of the game, again scored a good goal, had some more opportunities.
We needed that second goal, I think, because Everton make it difficult for you with the atmosphere here and the situation with them moving to a new stadium and not so many games left at Goodison.
So the crowd got involved and it's hard to control. So I feel for the players because they gave everything, but in the end we have to take our medicine and take the point.
We’re disappointed to concede at the end, but overall the players defended well as a unit, as a collective.
Emerson and Dinos Mavropanos came into the defence and I was pleased for them.
We just felt that we needed Dinos' physicality. They're a big team, Everton, and they used that well.
Ollie Scarles had such a big game on Monday, physically, and he's just starting out. So it was a good time to use Emi's experience and his quality. I think he did well.
So, yeah, the players are ready to help. That's a good thing. The subs are ready. They want to play. They're disappointed not to play, of course, but they're still ready to help and that's good.
Tomáš Souček is always a goal threat.
And he also defends the box well, and attacks the box well.
Against Everton, you need that physicality, you need that presence and he gives us that. It was a great finish from him and pushes his tally on nicely. So I'm pleased for him.
Going into the international break, it’s just a focus for us on the things that we've done well to keep the perspective.
At the same time, there is always stuff to improve. It is what it is. We'll obviously wish the guys that are away well when they're with their international teams.
And we'll use the time wisely to have a recover and a break and a rest from this and then build up again and be ready for the next match.
