ALLARDYCE: TOFFEES TO BE TOUGHER

football. And because they scored the three goals, certainly the two early on, that put us in great doubt about what we were doing.

“It took us until half time to go out and recover. It made a huge difference to us that we won the second half 1-0. Everyone would have been predicting we would lose by four, five or six. We knew how to put it right and we did do.

“When the second and third went in, that’s when fear hit the players. After that we fought, fought and fought and tried to salvage something. What we have to do is do that over 90 minutes.”

A Liverpool victory would mean they had more derby wins at Goodison than their hosts, with both clubs currently on 40. Allardyce (above) snorted: “Don’t tell me that! I might use that tomorrow for the lads. I don’t think they need any extra motivation to be fair. I don’t think that’s something we can let happen, if at all possible.

“It’s a very interesting stat and one I’d rather not have heard of. But it’s there for us all to see. Hopefully by the end of the game it’s not a factor.”

He insisted fans critical of his team’s style will have no problem with Everton putting up a wall against their bitter rivals.

Asked if the onus was on Everton to attack, he said: “Not particularly. We tried to attack City and before we knew it were 2-0 down. The approach has to be about nullifying their attacking options because they are exceptional.”