Michael Carrick admitted Manchester United’s dramatic 2-2 draw against Everton felt like a defeat after Ainsley Maitland-Niles produced a stunning stoppage-time equaliser at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
United appeared destined to claim all three points when Benjamin Sesko headed them back in front in the 88th minute.
However, Maitland-Niles struck in the final minute of added time to rescue a point for Everton on his debut.
The result left Carrick deeply frustrated after United had worked hard to put themselves in a winning position.
United surrender lead in dramatic finale
Bryan Mbeumo had put Manchester United ahead shortly after half-time, but Everton responded through Tyrique George, whose excellent long-range effort brought the hosts level.
Sesko then appeared to have settled the contest late on, only for Maitland-Niles to produce an even more spectacular finish from the edge of the area.
“We’re bitterly disappointed. It feels like a defeat,” Carrick said.
“It’s a bit of a cliché, but we have taken a point and we can’t ignore that, but it feels like we should have had a lot more.”
He added: “All the work that went into putting us in that position, to then come away like that leaves us with not a great feeling.”
Carrick admits United must tighten up
The United manager acknowledged that his side cannot afford to continue conceding goals at their current rate.
United have now conceded twice in each of their opening three games of the season against Hull City, Ipswich and Everton, collecting only four points from those matches.
“We haven’t started the season that badly,” Carrick insisted.
“We’ve got that close to coming away with three points today. There are moments we can deal with a bit better, but we’ll be fine.”
However, he conceded there was an obvious area that required improvement.
“Obviously we can’t ignore it. We need to concede less goals to give us a better chance of winning games,” Carrick said.
“We’ll certainly look at that and keep improving.”
Long-range strikes punish United
Carrick pointed to the quality of Everton’s two goals while accepting that United needed to do more to prevent such opportunities.
“There’s obviously things we need to get better at as a team,” he said.
“There’s been two strikes from distance really, two really good strikes from their point of view.”
“Sometimes they fly in the top corner and more often than not they probably don’t.”
Rashford forced off with hamstring concern
Marcus Rashford was among United’s more dangerous attacking players before being withdrawn in the second half.
The forward appeared to feel his hamstring shortly before coming off, prompting concern over his fitness.
Carrick played down the severity of the issue, saying: “He was just feeling a bit of something.”
“He looked really sharp and dangerous again, but that final moment didn’t quite drop for him.”
Maitland-Niles enjoys dream Everton debut
While Carrick was left to rue two points slipping away, Maitland-Niles could barely have imagined a better introduction to life at Everton.
The former Arsenal player completed a £4.2million move from Lyon just 45 minutes before the transfer deadline five days earlier and marked his first appearance with a spectacular goal.
“It felt like a win,” Maitland-Niles said.
“It’s amazing. Everyone wants to start off like that and thankfully I did.”
He explained how the decisive moment unfolded: “The ball fell to me on the edge of the box, I put my foot through it and it ended up in the top corner which I’m happy about.”
Moyes praises Everton’s late resilience
Everton manager David Moyes praised his new signing while admitting his side had shown enough to merit a share of the points.
“We are still getting to know Ainsley,” Moyes said.
“If nobody knew you, that goal would get you plenty of headlines. It was a brilliant goal.”
Moyes also felt Everton had not been outplayed despite falling behind twice.
“United played better than in other games. I didn’t think we deserved to be behind, but we lost the first goal a minute into the second half which was shabby,” he said.
“Then we allowed them to go 2-1 up, but it would be hard to say we didn’t deserve anything.”
