Everton FC correspondent Joe Thomas was at Finch Farm where, on Halloween, it felt as though the horrors were unfolding elsewhere
For once, maybe demons are not lurking in the shadows at Everton. That was the takeaway from a relatively serene press conference at a Finch Farm that was eerily quiet on Halloween.
The car park, typically filled to bursting on the Thursday of a gameweek, was practically empty – the first team having trained at Goodison Park in front of Sean Dyche before the Blues boss trekked south to speak to the media.
And in the conversations that followed, there was little tension for a manager that has overseen a five game unbeaten run ahead of the trip to bottom of the table Southampton.
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There is a sense that Dyche has survived most of the demons that have leapt from the darkness during his 22 months on Merseyside. There have been plenty of them.
On the pitch that has meant the nail-biting skirmishes with relegation that Everton have just about survived. Clips of the lowest points were shared across countless social media accounts on Thursday as evidence of things far scarier than vampires, ghosts and ghouls – the diving save Nick Pope made to keep Leicester City out at Newcastle United when a win would have thrown Everton’s top flight status into jeopardy… the sight of the ‘as it stands’ Premier League table days later when Abdoulaye Doucoure’s final day goal against Bournemouth was yet to burst the back of net, lifting the Blues out of the red and leaving Gary Neville overwhelmed by the Goodison roar heard across the Mersey.
As for off the pitch ghouls, where do you even start? Well, on the biggest day of spooky season Dyche’s press conference started with a question about the sacking of a manager that was not him. He wished Erik ten Hag well. That led into a question about ownership where the questions, for once, were also not directed pointedly at a crisis at Everton but at issues elsewhere.
Dyche still has a job to do, however, and the drama of the last few years continues to provide context for his efforts. His side remains one that has no choice but to fight its way through to stability and there is still a fragility and vulnerability around progress.
Whether the limitations he is forced to operate under dictate a survival-at-any-cost approach is an open source of debate but he has not shied away from his view that the performance for much of the match against Fulham, one that was watched with frustration by segments of the fanbase as Everton laboured, was below the standards he expects.
That his side still came away from that game with a point through Beto’s stoppage time goal is a source of satisfaction though – particularly with resilience having been so lacking in the early weeks of the season.
This is Everton, of course, so the news was not all positive. Dwight McNeil, responsible for most of the magical moments that have been sprinkled on his side this season, limped off last Saturday and is a doubt for this coming one.
James Garner’s back problem is serious, something that had been feared across the weeks since he suffered it and reported as such in the ECHO. Abdoulaye Doucoure has had an issue but is looking likely to overcome it.
But even on the injury front, Dyche is in the rare position where he can leave the real fretting to someone else. For once, he has options across the team and competition in key places thanks to the form of unlikely heroes like Michael Keane, Ashley Young and Beto. Meanwhile down on the south coast, Saints boss Russell Martin has a squad ravaged by illness.
The demons really do, for once, seem to be causing their trouble elsewhere.
