For your next magic trick Sam, get Everton to play.. like Bolton

THEY are known as the School of Science, yet under Sam Allardyce Everton turned frustration into an art form at Anfield. And there lies the dilemma at the heart of the Blues fanbase in embracing the manager’s methods, as he produced what many thought was the impossible in securing a point in the lion’s den.

Make no mistake, even those Everton supporters who are still firmly in the ‘Never Allardyce’ camp will warm to him a little after this miraculous afternoon. They are not exactly going to be building statues of the big man outside Goodison just yet. But this is a result that gives Big Sam (right) breathing space and allows him more time to introduce a more palatable form of his style. As Allardyce himself asked afterwards: “What did people expect?”

He has had barely a week to work with a squad he inherited with such imbalance it was in danger of toppling over.

And he got them drilled and organised, spirited and spritely.

It wasn’t pretty. There were times in the first half when it seemed every ball out of the beleaguered Everton defence went straight into touch – and times when they seemed to take their manager’s pre-game question, “Why do we want to keep the ball?” literally.

Afterwards, he confessed Everton’s lack of quality in possession worried him.

Yet they clung on. They went in just a goal down at half-time and saw that as something of a result, and continued with the same ambition of keeping the score down until the final moments when something might happen.

It did – in the form of a penalty most think was justified. But it was slightly harsh. If Salah’s push on Martina for the Liverpool goal wasn’t a foul, by the same token Lovren’s push wasn’t an offence.

Allardyce has now moved his side up to a healthy 10th place the table, and that gives him time and space to get his side playing in a more positive way.

For now that will satisfy the fans, who will be glad to give him the rest of the season if they keep heading up the table.

Beyond that though, this type of performance would not be acceptable – no matter how the end result justified the means.

But again, that is being unkind on a manager who had teams at Bolton who played decent, exciting attacking football, with players such as Jay-jay Okocha and Youri Djorkaeff.

Make no mistake. For Big Sam, this was a big step.