Tottenham Hotspur 1 - 1 Everton: Neville earns his spurs

David Moyes and Harry Redknapp were unified in their praise for Phil Neville after the veteran Everton captain stopped man-of-the-moment Gareth Bale in his tracks at White Hart Lane.

Bale has been on fire this season, hitting new heights on Wednesday night with a sensational hat-trick in Spurs' Champions League defeat at Inter Milan and running Maicon - the man many consider to be the world's best right-back - ragged. But he was largely nullified by 33-year-old Neville yesterday, who used all of his 15 years' top-flight experience to keep the 21-year-old quiet.

Former Manchester United player Neville also helped Phil Jagielka double up on Peter Crouch, and Everton boss Moyes was delighted with the leadership his skipper showed.

"I don't know if it's a dying breed, but he's a great leader," Moyes enthused. "The team seems to function much better with him in the team. He might get to the stage where he might not be the best player but, certainly, the team needs his leadership qualities. You should hear him in the dressing room; you should see him before the game. He's a top man, he really is. He prepares himself right. That's why he's had 50-60 England caps and that's why he's got longevity in his career. He's a terrific leader, motivating, cajoling and he'll always be the first one to put his hand up if he thinks he's not been right on it."

Opposite number Redknapp was equally effusive about a player whose ability has often been called into question. "Gareth's been murdering everybody," Redknapp said. "But I knew that he (Neville) wouldn't be easy today because he knows what he's doing. I think he's an under-rated player. He's a good pro and he knows how to play and I felt he did a decent job today with Gareth, really - as good as anybody's done with him for a long time."

Rafael van der Vaart returned to rescue Spurs from defeat once again but this time they were unable to complete the comeback as Everton held on for a point.

Suspended for Wednesday night's Champions League defeat at Inter Milan, Van der Vaart scored his fifth goal in as many games to send Spurs third in the Barclays Premier League.

The Netherlands midfielder's effort cancelled out Leighton Baines' brilliant free-kick - his first goal for almost 14 months - while Crouch wasted more than one chance to seal what would have been Tottenham's fourth comeback win in five league matches.

Moyes made special provision for Bale and fellow talisman Van der Vaart, who nevertheless scored to salvage a point for Spurs.

But the Scot added: "We can't say, ‘We'll stop Bale'; you can't say, ‘We'll just stop Van der Vaart'. They've got players in all areas of the field that need taking care of. I'd give our players a great deal of credit."

Van der Vaart levelled less than three minutes after Baines had given Everton the lead. Admitting the left-back probably would not have taken the free-kick had star midfielder Mikel Arteta been fit, Moyes said: "Bainesy does practise them and he's got that ability. I thought when I looked at the wall that it was too big. It was nearly impossible to get it up and down."

Everton might easily have folded following Van der Vaart's equaliser, with Tottenham having come from behind to win in three of their previous four league games.

And Moyes revealed he gave goalkeeper Tim Howard a half-time pep talk after his flap led to the equaliser.

"I said to him at half-time, ‘We're going to need you to keep coming and taking it'," Moyes said. "And I thought he was brave at times in the second half. He kept coming and he clutched a couple of really important crosses for us."

The draw followed Everton's Merseyside derby victory and left them in a comfortable mid-table position. Moyes said: "If you'd given me four points from Liverpool and Tottenham, I would've taken it. Because I think anybody who comes to Tottenham this year and takes a point is going to have to do well and play well."

A draw was enough to move Spurs up to third place, for at least 24 hours.