Michael Carrick 'bitterly disappointed' as Man United are held to draw at Everton with last-minute wonder goal - and admits leaky defence must sharpen up

Michael Carrick admitted that Manchester United’s draw at Everton felt more like a defeat after Ainsley Maitland-Niles fired a dramatic equaliser in the final minute of injury time.

Benjamin Sesko looked to have given United victory at the Hill Dickinson Stadium for the second season in a row when he struck in the 88th minute, but Maitland-Niles celebrated a dream debut by making it 2-2 at the end of a week in which he joined Everton on deadline day.

‘We’re bitterly disappointed,’ said Carrick. ‘It feels like a defeat. It's a bit of a cliche, but we have taken a point and we can't ignore that, but it feels like we should have had a lot more.

‘All the work that went into putting us in that position, to then come away like that leaves us with not a great feeling.’

Bryan Mbeumo fired United in front right after half-time before Tyrique George levelled with an excellent strike, and Maitland-Niles produced an even better one to cancel out Sesko’s header.

United have conceded two goals in all three of their games so far this season against Hull City, Ipswich and now Everton, taking a total of four points.

‘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.

‘Obviously we can't ignore it. We need to concede less goals to give us a better chance of winning games. We'll certainly look at that and keep improving.

‘There's obviously things we need to get better at as a team. 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.’

Marcus Rashford was one of United’s brighter players but had to come off in the second half after appearing to hold his hamstring moments earlier.

‘He was just feeling a bit of something,’ Carrick confirmed. ‘He looked really sharp and dangerous again, but that final moment didn't quite drop for him.’

While Carrick was left feeling as though he had lost the game, it was quite the opposite for Everton after Maitland-Niles struck five days after completing a £4.2million move from Lyon 45 minutes before the deadline.

‘It felt like a win,’ said the former Arsenal player. ‘It's amazing. Everyone wants to start off like that and thankfully I did. 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.

‘We dug deep and managed to get a point. The crowd were with us and we were fighting to the end and that's why you get those results.’

Everton boss David Moyes paid tribute to his new signing, saying: ‘We are still getting to know Ainsley. If nobody knew you, that goal would get your plenty of headlines. It was a brilliant goal.

‘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. Then we allowed them to go 2-1 up, but it would be hard to say we didn’t deserve anything.’