Sean Dyche praises two Everton players after Wolves draw and makes excuses claim

Sean Dyche was again encouraged by Everton’s mentality despite being unable to keep their Premier League survival hopes in their own hands.

The Toffees snatched a last-gasp 1-1 draw against Wolves on Saturday although it remains to be seen whether the result will prove a positive one of not. Yerry Mina bagged a 99th-minute equaliser for Everton to move two points above the relegation zone - but 18th-placed Leeds United and 19th-placed Leicester City both have games in hand.

Everton have at least given themselves a fighting chance of staying up after Dyche replaced Frank Lampard as manager at the end of January. After the draw against Wolves, Dyche told reporters: “Fifteen points from 20 games, I wouldn’t say was a fantastic return at that stage. A lot of noise around the club, we kind of calmed that a little bit. A lot of noise about the team, we calmed that somewhat. A couple that got away from us, we’ve missed some very important players - the obvious one being Dom, there has been a lot of noise around him. There have been a lot of challenges.

“I’m not really a*sed about excuses, excuse me, but I go: ‘What can we [do]’, That was the pleasing thing today as a staff and a manager going into the players and saying what can we do to affect this game. I’m very pleased from that.”

Everton were hit with injury problems before and during the Wolves draw. They went into the Molineux encounter without captain Semuas Coleman, Vitalii Mykolenko, Ben Godfrey, Tom Davies, Ruben Vinagre and Andros Townsend. Then in the first half, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Nathan Patterson were forced off with respective hamstring issues.

It meant several changes of formation but Dyche was delighted with the attitude James Garner and Dwight McNeil showed. He added: “Jimmy Garner has come in and you can put the kid anywhere; ‘Right I’ll get on with it’. That’s the mentality you want as a manager. Not just him but that was the highlight from it.

“Dwight McNeil: ‘Yeah OK, if that’s what I’ve got to do that’s what I’ll do’. There is a bigger picture, we need it for next week, that’s quite obvious but it’s a mentality that’s growing and I’m very pleased with these players.”