‘Ridiculous!’ - Simon Jordan hails and slams Everton after win vs Crystal Palace

Simon Jordan has issued his verdict on the scenes at Goodison Park on Thursday evening.

Everton secured Premier League safety in dramatic circumstances after coming from behind to beat Crystal Palace.

The Toffees were 2-0 down but managed to defeat Patrick Vieira’s men 3-2 thanks to goals from Michael Keane, Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

It was a dramatic night which ended in scenes of celebration, with thousands of fans taking to the pitch to celebrate survival.

And the collective decision from the supporters to rush the field has divided opinion, much because such scenes are usually reserved for winning trophies, or certainly in Everton’s case.

The Toffees are seen as being too big a club to find themselves in this situation, and because of that, many believe they shouldn’t be celebrating beating the situation.

That’s something former Crystal Palace chief Simon Jordan has hinted at in his review of the evening on talkSPORT.

“That team, those players who were celebrated by fans on the pitch, they shouldn’t be celebrated, because they are the same players who put them in this ridiculous situation they are in,” said Jordan.

“But they got themselves together in the second half because the Goodison crowd - and the players as well - has dragged them over the line.

“They’ve done it in games against Manchester United, in games against Chelsea, and in this game, I wasn’t surprised once Everton got that first goal back.

“Palace were still missing chances, but it’s not a game Palace needed anything from.

“There was an intensity from the crowd, and you would have to be particularly gifted or a complete non-entity not to have been able to respond to that.

“People are saying ‘what have you got to say about Dele Alli now?’ Well, if you can’t come off the bench and lift yourself in a game, you would have to be a real non-entity that people look at from a different perspective. But they’ve done the job,”

The vast majority of fans rushed to the pitch in nothing but good spirits, relieved that their club had dodged the drop and in such dramatic circumstances.

But one fan decided to goad the win in front of Palace boss Vieria, sticking his finger up in the face of the Frenchman while following him and hurling insults. Vieira kicked out at the fan after being impeded in his attempts to leave the pitch.

It’s not the first incident of the week, with Sheffield United star Billy Sharp being headbutted after a pitch invasion, while there were also ugly scenes at Port Vale.

Speaking about the incident at Goodison Park - and indeed the incidents elsewhere - Jordan added: “Running on the pitch and celebrating, putting your mind’s eye to it, who wants to be a miserable sod and say people can’t do that?

“That’s the one thing. On the other side of it, what is goading and antagonising got to do with celebrating?

“What has going up to Billy Sharp and headbuttong got to do with celebrating your achievement? What has gone at Port Vale?

“There is a society that lives on social media that thinks it can say or do what it wants on social media, then it believes it can lift itself and actually do that crap in real time.

“Football needs to think clearly about these things. They need to think, if we need stop people going on the pitch, not because of the celebrations, but to stop the behaviour manifesting itself, then it needs to step up and be professional in what it does.”