Everton midfielder Darron Gibson admits to feeling 'relieved' after scoring Manchester City winner

The former Manchester United man says pressure on him was lifted by a goal which ensured the Toffees took three points from the league leaders

1 Feb 2012 16:21:00

By Edward Tibbles

More On :  Everton, Manchester City, Tony Hibbert, Darron Gibson
Darron Gibson & David Silva
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Darron Gibson has claimed that his winner against Manchester City lifted a lot of the pressure he has felt since making his move to Everton.

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The Republic of Ireland international spoke of the relief he felt as soon as his first goal for the club went in, claiming that his £2.5 million move from Manchester United put him under stress, despite the efforts his team-mates made to welcome him.

"It is a great time [to score], especially against them. It came across from the left and Landon Donovan controlled it,” Gibson told EvertonTV.

"I think he was going to have a shot but luckily he put it in my path and I struck through it and it went in.

"It was a great feeling, a lot of stress relieved. All the lads have welcomed me brilliantly. They have just made me feel at home and I have settled in brilliantly and I am really enjoying it.”

He also hailed the importance of the result, which helped the Toffees banish memories of a disappointing fourth round FA Cup defeat at the hands of Fulham.

"I am just delighted we got the three points. It was unbelievable, the lads went out and put a great shift in and thankfully we got the result in the end,” he added.

"We knew we had to go out and work really hard and try to stop them playing to get any sort of result and I think we did it really well. We knew we would get a few chances in the game and we took one."

The achievement of a clean sheet against Manchester City was made even sweeter as David Moyes was resigned to fielding a weakened defence because of the absence of Phil Jagielka and Sylvain Distin.

Tony Hibbert deputised for Everton at centre-back and put in an impressive performance which the defender claimed was made easier by the Goodison Park faithful.

He said: "It was great to play in and it was a special night for us. It was one of those days at Goodison, the crowd were behind us.

"The way we played and kept them out was phenomenal really. It was not just the back four or the midfield, but the whole team played really well."

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England 1-0 Belgium, Netherlands 4-0 Northern Ireland - follow all the international action LIVE! ahead of Euro 2012
With countries across the continent gearing up for their final warm-up games ahead of Euro 2012, join us for all the action from Saturday's friendlies. Get in touch with us via Twitter with your reaction.

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19:59 BST
Unfortunately for Northern Ireland, they are trailing the Netherlands 4-0 at half-time. Looks like that one's all sewn up then.
19:54 BST
We're still getting plenty of Hazard chat on Twitter. A few are now saying that he's not worth the hype, others saying he was brilliant(!?) and others (which I agree with), saying he created much of his own hype. What do you think? Get involved!
19:46 BST
Joe Hart has also been giving his thoughts after the Belgium game: "It was a really tough game, a good run out. I thought we played well, [but] we were a little bit bitty at times.

"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.

"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
19:38 BST
Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."

"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."

Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
19:35 BST
And another point from today: Eden Hazard wasn't great. Don't think you can judge him on one performance though. What do you think? Is it just a case of too much hype around the Chelsea-bound Belgian?
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