Sean Dyche said Everton’s fans were “fantastic” as he praised the Goodison Park crowd’s role in the win over Arsenal.
The new Blues boss had made clear he was aware of issues between the club hierarchy and supporters ahead of his first match in charge and committed to trying to understand them. He urged fans to give his players a “chance to breathe” and back them on the pitch - which they did as they roared the side on for 90 minutes.
Ahead of the Merseyside derby Dyche acknowledged that support and how vital it is to Everton’s hopes for this season.
READ MORE: Sean Dyche gives blunt assessment of Everton record at Liverpool
READ MORE: How Luis Suarez 'helped' Everton by diving right in front of David Moyes
Reflecting on his first Goodison Park experience as the home manager, Dyche paid tribute to the fans for giving him a chance. He said: “The fans definitely played a fantastic part because there's a lot of noise upstairs. I’m learning about that, of course, and then they took all that away and that is important to us… It is important for me as a manager and important for the team, and they [the fans] were terrific because they took all that away.
"I just asked for a bit of patience, a breather, just give us a chance to breathe and they were amazing. And the team responded. You can look at it either way. The team delivered and the crowd responded or the crowd gave them a chance to deliver - whichever way it works it ties everyone back together.”
Looking to the trip to Anfield on Monday, Dyche said he would take a positive result however it came, but that he was working to ensure his players do everything they can to give themselves the best opportunity to come away from the match with a good result.
He said: “The start point is another performance. Then we can layer up. But you take a lucky one if it comes your way - but we want to perform to win or draw… Woany [Ian Woan] has got a saying 'there's no future in that performance'. We would all take a lucky one right, all of us, but there is no future in that.
"You can't 'luck' out every week in the Premier League. It's much better if it is by design, by performance, detail, what you expect and all that and a lot of the feedback from Everton fans [after Arsenal] is that 'ok, that's the start, forget about the result, we just love the fact we had a team going 'come on, let's take it on'.”
Dyche was also quizzed whether he had been a boyhood Liverpool fan at Finch Farm on Friday.
He responded by saying his real passion was his local team, Kettering Town: “I don’t mind telling you that at seven years old I’m in Kettering, not exactly the metropolis of football I will tell you. I was actually a Kettering fan, which by the way never makes a story. I actually physically had a season ticket and I used to physically go and watch Kettering. The sideline of Kettering, because obviously Kettering doesn’t make a story and you’ll all agree with that, is that as a ‘70s kid, most kids in the ‘70s supported Liverpool. My mate Franny, he had a yellow Liverpool kit… I thought ‘that’s a nice kit, who is that?’ and he said ‘Liverpool’ so I thought: ‘We are Liverpool fans from now on then’. He still is.”
Dyche added the only time he went to Anfield was to play before a game after his youth team was invited to Merseyside because of then player Phil Neal’s connection to the area, explaining: “I’d never been to a game, other than Phil Neal’s… It’s kind of a story but it is not really. I could tell you a story about Kettering Town, Freddie Easthall, Billy Kellock going to Wembley in 1979 for the FA Vase. Jim Conde, the legend who was the assistant and whose son I played with. I could tell you a million Kettering stories, I can’t tell you many Liverpool stories other than the ones you all know.”
Asked what it would mean to write his name in Everton folklore with a win at Anfield on Monday, Dyche said his focus was on the team and not securing any legacy. He said: "I don't know whether you know but I had my head put up on a pub [the Royal Dyche Arms near Burnley’s Turf Moor stadium] and it is not the best picture of me. So I'd be careful what you wish for. I'm not bothered about all that, I'm just bothered about the team.”
READ NEXT
- Sean Dyche gives blunt assessment of Everton record at Liverpool
- Jordan Pickford Everton contract stance outlined
- Sean Dyche and Sam Allardyce comparisons dismissed as key Everton difference named
- Sean Dyche agrees with Carlo Ancelotti on Seamus Coleman impact as Everton landmark nears
- Southampton sack Nathan Jones as Everton face new relegation battle challenge
