Wayne Rooney is spared the pain – but Manchester United aren't

First Manchester United dropped Wayne Rooney, then they dropped two points. By the end of a frantic 90 minutes at Goodison Park, not to mention the extra three in which Everton stunned their opponents with the comeback of the season so far for a 3-3 draw, it was hard to decide which story was the more sensational.

Rooney's absence certainly dominated the earlier part of the afternoon. Despite declaring everyone fit the day before, as well as claiming that it was impossible to field anything less than full-strength sides in important Premier League games, Sir Alex Ferguson diplomatically omitted his erring striker and spared him a torrid time at the hands of supporters who formerly idolised him.

"We made the decision to leave Wayne out simply because of the terrible abuse he always gets here," the Manchester United manager explained. "We didn't want to subject him to any more of that. We have a fantastic squad at this club and we are prepared to use it."

That thinking appeared to set United in good stead as they overcame the setback of a Steven Pienaar goal to take a 3-1 lead by midway through the second half, with goals from Darren Fletcher, Nemanja Vidic and Dimitar Berbatov and some sparkling contributions by the timeless Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs.

But for Tim Howard's reactions in the Everton goal United would have been out of sight before the end, as they might have been had Berbatov and Nani accepted late chances to increase their lead. Even when the game entered stoppage time Everton did not seem to have a hope, yet two crosses from Leighton Baines and two headers from Tim Cahill later (the second leading to a goal for Mikel Arteta), United had lost two points and the afternoon had been turned on its head.

"It's amazing, we've thrown it away, like we did in the Fulham game," Ferguson said. "You have to have determination in situations like that, but we were so wasteful with our chances. We could have scored five or six in the second half with great opportunities and to lose two goals in injury time is unthinkable. We had it under control and the game was finished – even when they scored a second. It was a terrible end for us. We have thrown the points away and hopefully at the end of the season we don't sit back and regret it."

United play Rangers and Liverpool next, so they will have to recover from this disappointment quickly. Ferguson promised Rooney would take part in the Champions League game against the Glasgow club on Tuesday, along with Rio Ferdinand, who has apparently recovered from injury but was not involved here.

Everton, with two points from four games, entertain Newcastle on Saturday, and David Moyes hopes this draw that felt like a victory will improve self-belief. "I thought we played really well, even if the scoreline didn't always show it," the Everton manager said. "Even at 3-1 down I never thought we deserved to be out of the game. We matched United for everything except perhaps clinical finishing."

Moyes ended up on the pitch at the final whistle, remonstrating with the referee, Martin Atkinson, for blowing it too early. As if the game had not already contained enough incident and excitement, Moyes was annoyed when Atkinson brought it to a close as Phil Jagielka was in the act of shooting at goal.

"I don't know precisely how much time was left, but neither does anyone," he argued. "There were two goals in stoppage time to take account of and there may only have been 10 seconds or less left, but we had just scored two goals in two minutes and gone straight upfield from a corner, and before the move can develop the referee has blown.

"I don't think anyone in the ground would have complained had he blown after the shot, wherever the ball had ended up. People don't pay their money to see referees, they come here for excitement."

Moyes and Ferguson apart, no one was actually complaining on that score.