by Simon Williams, at Old Trafford

Manchester United made it back-to-back wins for the first time under the stewardship of Louis van Gaal yesterday with a 2-1 win over Everton at Old Trafford.

Angel Di Maria gave the hosts a lead before Leighton Baines saw a penalty saved in the dying embers of the first-half.

Steven Naismith nodded home the equaliser but Radamel Falcao grabbed the winning goal to secure the points midway through the second half.

Despite the victory, which sees United climb to fourth in the table, Van Gaal still doesn’t believe his charges have hit top form.

“We are not playing well but we are fourth in the table — so what will happen when we do play well?” he asked.

“It’s a little bit strange that

every time the first half is good but the second half is very different. That’s a shame.”

Everton went into the game having won three of their last four games against United, all in the Premier League.

However they found themselves behind when Di Maria curled a wonderful effort beyond Tim Howard and into the bottom corner of the goal to give the home side a deserved lead.

The Toffees had the chance to level things up on the stroke of half-time after Luke Shaw felled Tony Hibbert in the box only for David de Gea to save Baines’s resulting spot-kick.

It was the first time the England international had missed a spot-kick in the league, having converted his previous 14.

But with United having only kept two clean sheets in their last 10 league games an equaliser was almost inevitable.

And 10 minutes after the restart Everton struck — Baines whipping in a fantastic cross from the left for Naismith to head home at the far post.

Falcao gave his side the lead again with his first goal for the club since joining on loan from Monaco in the summer, before De Gea produced a stunning save to keep out substitute Bryan Oviedo’s volley.

After the game Van Gaal was quick to praise the Spanish keeper. “When you stop a penalty and then in the dying seconds you make three saves, you are great.”