IT’S A GRIND FOR TOFFEES BUT IT’S ALL DWIGHT NOW
BY DAVID ANDERSON
DWIGHT MCNEIL claims Everton had to “grind out” victory over Nottingham Forest to set them up for Liverpool.
Mcneil says he and his Everton team-mates knew they had to deliver a response following last Monday’s 6-0 drubbing by Chelsea.
The winger, who netted Everton’s second against Forest (below) to take his tally for the season to three, felt they did that in their relegation shoot-out.
“We knew our performance last Monday was nowhere near good enough,” said Mcneil.
“We were awful all game and we knew we had to make it right by getting three points against Nottingham Forest.
“Against Chelsea, we were nowhere near good enough.
Against Forest, the lads did well to grind out a difficult game.
Now, we have got to build on that going into a big week ahead.” know-how to get them through. “We’re an experienced group and a lot of the lads have been in this position before, so we’ve got that experience behind us, which is always helpful,” he said.
“No one is panicking as such, everyone is quite calm and relaxed.
“Luckily, we had another game in the same week and it comes around fast. We knew we needed to rectify things against Forest and we did that.
“We got the three points we needed. We have a massive game coming up and then the following Saturday.”
Everton head into tomorrow’s Merseyside derby at Goodison Park five points above the safety line and Mcneil insists they are not safe yet.
“It’s massive, but we know there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done,” he said.
“It’s a job not done yet. We need to win games and we still need to perform.
“We’ve got to get as many points on the board as we can before the end of the season.”