STINGS OF THE ROAD

Everton have the worst away record in the league but face two huge games with Lampard telling his strugglers they must front up at Leicester & Watford

FRANK LAMPARD has told his Everton players they must front up and “own” their shocking away form... in order to turn it around.

Everton have the worst away record in the Premier League by far, with relegation rivals Leeds taking three times as many points on their travels and Burnley more than double the Blues’ meagre total of just six all season.

It is a shocking statistic, that explains the club’s precarious position mired in the bottom three as they stare into the abyss of the drop.

Everton now have two massive trips, to Leicester tomorrow, and then strugglers Watford in midweek. And the manager has bluntly told his team that the time for excuses is over.

“We can’t have so long a period without winning away from home,” he said.

“That has to be on us. We have to own it now and get results away in these last games.

“In a general way, yeah, the pitch is the same size away from home.

“You saw with Liverpool in Villarreal and what happened to City in Madrid the next day, being at home has a huge effect. But in the position we are in, we can’t have that as our ‘out’.

“We can’t have so long a run without winning. It is simple, we have lost too many games away from home, and that is completely on the players.”

Everton’s form on their travels makes sorry reading. Incredibly, with a draw at Leeds and then victory at Brighton in August, it means they took two-thirds of their away points in the opening two away games.

Since then it has been an absolute horror story, with just two draws, at Manchester United and Chelsea, and 12 defeats in their 16 matches so far.

Worryingly, they haven’t taken a single awayday point in six Premier League matches since Lampard arrived in January, with 17 goals against and just four scored… and suffered a 4-0 FA Cup defeat at Palace during that dreadful run.

Lampard knows it must change, and he said: “Look, in all probability, relegation will come down to maths, and the games we have left.

“But if we want to take it into our own hands then the reality is we have to win our games, and so we have three games away from home.

“We can’t look at anyone else, we can’t look at other results to help us.”