A repeat of the Everton crowd's furious reaction to the midweek defeat to Tottenham Hotspur, when some of them voiced their dissatisfaction in catcalls at the home dug-out, could undermine the team's attempts to qualify for Europe, David Moyes has said.

Home fans at Goodison Park castigated Moyes for substituting a visibly tiring Manuel Fernandes five minutes from time with the score still 1-1 and were apparently infuriated by the replacement of a midfielder with the full back Tony Hibbert.

The final whistle, with Everton beaten 2-1, was greeted with a wave of abuse. Moyes, who celebrates his fifth anniversary in charge at the club next month, accepted criticism was sometimes inevitable, but fears it may derail the team's season if it is maintained.

"The Everton supporters are very knowledgable, they've been very good to me here and they're entitled to their opinion. I've got no problem with that at all," said the manager, who is suffering as a consequence of raising expectations at the club, having overseen two top-seven finishes in his four full seasons in charge.

"I am aware that the supporters were booing me. It was disappointing, but that comes with the territory. They've chanted my name plenty so I accept it if it's going the other way. I've got to say, though, I didn't think it helped the team, but they pay their money and I'll always support them. They've been good to me."

Privately Moyes is understood to be perplexed by the crowd's reaction, as well as by suggestions that supporters intend to protest against the chairman, Bill Kenwright, at this afternoon's Premiership game at Watford.

Everton are eighth in the league, having lost only two of their past nine top-flight games, and in midweek they were without their leading scorers, Andrew Johnson and Tim Cahill.

"It would be good to see if people think that Everton should be much further up (the table) than we are," Moyes added. "Should we be in the top four? We've done it once, but most people would say no. Could we be in that next group, fifth to ninth? Well, we are in there. That's the group that we're realistically trying to become a part of, and that's not easy. That's really tough. There's no guarantee of that, but for most of the season we've been roughly in that position.

"The players have been terrific. Every one of them (has done) what they've been asked to do. The reaction of the players has been great because they're saying they thought the crowd's reaction didn't help them, so from that point of view the players have been terrific."

Guardian Service