DAVID MOYES confirmed his intention to appeal the red card shown to Darron Gibson – but was much keener to talk about the performance which took Everton back into the top four.

Second half goals from Victor Anichebe and Steven Pienaar overturned Carlton Cole’s early strike for West Ham United on Saturday at Upton Park.

The win saw Everton leapfrog Tottenham Hotspur back into the Champions League qualifying places with Moyes thrilled by their level of performance in the capital, describing some of their play as “magical”.

However, the game was overshadowed by some baffling decisions by referee Anthony Taylor and his assistants.

After Leon Osman’s disallowed goal in the first-half, red cards were harshly shown to Cole and Gibson after the break much to the dismay of Moyes and his West Ham counterpart Sam Allardyce.

Moyes plans on putting an appeal in with the Football Association but after the match his main focus was on the performance of his side, especially without the suspended Marouane Fellaini.

“It’s a shame we aren’t talking about how well Everton are playing at the moment,” he said.

“We decided to go 4-4-2 with the two boys up front and what we have done is won in another fashion.

“I have learnt you can’t just have one way of playing in the Premier League.

“As the season goes on, injuries and suspensions take their toll.

“And I think it was a good lift for us as well to win without Marouane in the team.”

He continued: “I thought our play had warranted to get back in the game.

“And you’re saying how will we make this better, but I didn’t think we needed to make it better because we were playing really well, it would have been difficult to do anything off the bench to make that better.”

Osman came in for particularly high praise from Moyes, who said: “Everyone has football opinions and that’s why it’s the game it is but I thought he was the best player on the pitch today.

“He took the ball, turned and passed it, was creative, was clever when he got the ball played to him.

“We had to pull him off the right hand side today because we were short of players but I think if Roy (Hodgson) had seen him play today he would realise he had made the right decision to select him for the first game. And if he keeps playing like that he won’t be far away from a second one in the future.”