Frank Lampard hailed the heroics of returning club captain Seamus Coleman after his role in Everton's win at Southampton.
The skipper played in the Premier League for the first time this season as he replaced Nathan Patterson, who pick up an injury on international duty that will rule him out for up to five weeks. It was also Coleman's first league game since the comeback win over Crystal Palace that secured the Blues' Premier League survival last season, and followed a summer that included surgery.
But the 33-year-old still produced a composed display as he dealt with a number of challenging back-post crosses and repeatedly surged forward to support his team-mates.
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After the match Lampard, who has previously heaped praise on Coleman's crucial dressing room influence during the relegation battle last season, welcomed the performance and the return of one of his most trusted players.
Asked how useful it was to have Coleman available again - and how impressed he was with his display, the Everton boss said: "It's really useful to say the least and the bigger picture of the story is for Seamus to be injured, to carry an injury at the end of the season, to have an operation and not play 90 minutes for a long time and to be thrown in.
"Patterson has been playing great, we all know that, Seamus hasn't been able to get game minutes, so I'm delighted for him to come up - particularly in the second half.
"There were balls being chipped in at the back post and he was dealing with things with his experience and his quality and so I am really pleased for him and he will be so much the better for having those 90 minutes."
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