Keane backs Silva to wriggle

AFTER all the “snake” taunts aimed at Marco Silva, it was the same old Everton – a load of cobras.

As a fifth defeat in six games and an unhappy return to Vicarage Road piled the pressure on Silva, Michael Keane preached stability and insisted the players were “right behind” their manager.

But with Watford four points ahead of the Toffees and a yawning 32-point gap to the Premier League leaders across Stanley Park, it remains unclear whether Silva and Everton’s marriage will have a happy-ever-after.

The two clubs are still deadlocked in a tapping-up row after Silva’s acrimonious departure last year and some of the comedy for his consumption (below) was, er... pure Monty Python.

Watford’s pre-match playlist was a series of naked digs at their ex-manager – Fleetwood Mac’s Go Your Own Way, Bon Jovi’s You Give Love A Bad Name and, right between the eyes, Al Wilson’s The Snake.

And for 90 minutes, the soundtrack did not get any better for

Silva, notably the home supporters’ thunderous rendition of “Javi Gracia, he’s better than you”. Ouch

– that’s got to hurt.

It remains to be seen whether Goodison Park power-broker Farhad Moshiri subscribes to “You’re Getting Sacked In The Morning”, but with Leeds’ master spy Marcelo Bielsa on the radar, Silva is not safe yet.

Keane, applying some common sense to all the froth, was at Burnley when they were relegated, but stood by manager Sean Dyche – and emerged stronger for it. He said: “We all rate the manager and we’re all pulling for him. I think he’s doing a good job, but things aren’t going for him at the minute.

“In football, lots of managers go through bad spells, but sometimes the best way ahead is to stick with them and they come out the other side. “We’re confident we can do that because we have quality among the players in this squad, a quality manager, we’ve got 100 per cent belief we will turn the corner and we believe in what we’re doing. “Stability is important at any football club because when the routines become more normal, players and staff get to know each