Sean Dyche claims it’s too early to know the full extent of Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Nathan Patterson’s injuries but praised his Everton players’ attitude in their dramatic last-gasp 1-1 draw at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The Blues lost Patterson and then Calvert-Lewin either side of Hwang Hee-Chan firing Wolves in front but rescued what could be a precious point in their bid to avoid the drop with Yerry Mina levelled proceedings in the 99th minute of second-half stoppage time.
Dyche confirmed both withdrawals were down to suspected hamstring injuries but said: “We’ll just have to wait and see, it’s too early yet. It will probably be on Monday when they settle down that we’ll know the true nature.”
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The Everton manager was pleased with the way James Garner - a central midfielder on the right - and Dwight McNeil - a winger operating at full-back - reacted to him asking them to both play out of their natural positions. He said: “I think the way the game was panning out, it shows the mentality and a strong sign of what the group has become. I still think there’s quality in the group, too.
“A lot has been made about it being the end of the season for Wolves but once they go ahead it gives them a lift and it becomes difficult. You’ve got a lot of bodies behind the ball but we kept probing, kept trying, kept changing and the way we were trying to operate.
“There were some really pleasing things like Jimmy Garner, you can put the kid anywhere he’ll go, ‘all right, I’ll get on with it’. That’s the mentality you want as a manager. Not just him, Dwight McNeil too; ‘okay, if that’s what I’ve got to do, that’s what I’ll do’. And that’s a powerful thing.”
Dyche added: “I thought we started well, I thought we started brightly. We gave away a situation on the edge of our box which they countered, we don’t give a professional foul away – which you should do, that’s just the nature of the game now – and they get a goal out of nothing in a breakaway incident.
“I thought we were playing quite well, I was quite pleased with the performance at that stage but then we lost players. You’re scratching your head because you're 1-0 down and you’ve lost players and we have to adapt.
“I knew when I took over about the imbalance in the squad and how stretched it can get and it has got stretched, it’s as simple as that. I was really impressed with the mentality of the players as there were no excuses from me and no excuses from them – this is what it is. This is the challenge right in front of us and I told them that at half-time.
“I told them we’d be changing the shape and possibly looking to adapt it in the second half. It's not about shapes and tactics, it’s about mentality, so I’m pleased for them, they got their reward and we all got our reward, for them putting a proper shift in and never losing the belief that we could score a goal and we did.”
Everton now know that regardless of other results in between, they’ll now be looking to get a result at home to Bournemouth on the final day of the season But Dyche believes his squad have got the right mentality to finish the job. He said: “There have been so many stories since I’ve been at Everton, I’ve lost track, but at the end of the day one of them has been about the away record. All of a sudden that’s looking a bit healthier and the mentality is looking healthier towards those performances at a very important time of the season going down to Brighton and producing a very good performance.
“There was a quieter one at Palace but we still got a clean sheet and a point and what I thought was a very good performance at Leicester, another point, two goals. These are all markers.
“There’s a lot of work to be done but you want strong markers, you want to keep believing and you want to back it with what’s actually happening and I think they’ve backed themselves and I’m really pleased.”
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