We Must Learn From This

Darren Fletcher says it’s imperative the Reds learn lessons from Saturday’s disappointing 3-3 draw at Goodison Park.

Like United’s last away game, against Fulham at Craven Cottage, Sir Alex’s men threw away a lead in the dying stages. At Fulham it was a single goal; at Everton David Moyes’ side scored twice in injury time to earn a share of the spoils.

"It’s desperately disappointing," Fletcher told MUTV. "We were 3-1 up at 90 minutes… [to draw from that position ] is not what’s expected at United.

"All we can do now is learn from it – that’s the biggest thing. The same happened to us at Fulham and this shows we haven’t learned from that. We really have to do that now and see games out when we’re in a winning position."

Earlier, United had done well to recover from going a goal down to draw level at the break, courtesy of Fletcher’s 42nd-minute strike.

“It was important we scored straight away and went into half-time at 1-1," he stressed. "At that point we would have been the happier team.

“Then we came out in the second half, played some good football and got ourselves into a good position. We started the second half the way we should do – we passed the ball around and took our chances. We were in control of the game.”

But Tim Cahill’s header in the 91st minute gave Everton hope, even though the Toffees still trailed at that point with only 90 seconds remaining.

“Once they got that second goal it gave the whole place a lift,” Fletcher said. “You can’t give teams like Everton any sort of confidence – it gives them hope and then they threw men into the box for the last minute, which they wouldn’t have done at 3-1.

“Teams like Everton play until the final whistle and they proved that today. If we don’t defend right as a team we’re going to get punished.

"The biggest thing, though, is that we learn from today and don’t let it happen again."