Everton’s Dwight McNeil hails Seamus Coleman’s influence after scoring a brace in first win of the season

The 24-year-old scored twice just after half-time as his side came from behind in the Premier League for the first time since October 2022 to beat Crystal Palace 2-1 and record their first win of the season.

McNeil, now playing as a number 10 instead of on the sidelines, headed home from 25 yards for the equalizer 77 seconds after the break before firing past Dean Henderson from Jack Harrison’s cross shortly after. some time later.

That doubled his tally to four goals in his last six games, already one more than he managed all of last season.

“It’s funny because me, Skip (Coleman) and Tarks (Tarkowski) talked during the preseason about how to improve my stats and how I can do it,” he said.

“I think it’s a lot of different things. A lot of it is about mentality, having confidence in myself and when you have confidence in the guys around you who believe in you, in you, in the manager and coaching team.

“Playing in the center as well, being more involved in the game, has helped me improve my stats, but there is a long way to go and I know there is a lot of improvement.

“For me, I’m happy with what I’ve done so far, but I want more, I want to kick more. I want to learn more about the game, improve and help the team as best I can.

“I want to help the team impact games as best I can because I want to improve, help the team and see where it takes me.

“But the main thing was to get the three points and the first win of the season at Goodison – but we have to move forward.”

The team were booed at halftime after a disappointing 45 minutes against another winless team and winger Jesper Lindstrom was the first to pay the price as he was replaced at the break by Harrison, who had an immediate impact.

The celebration scenes at the final whistle showed just how important the victory was after taking a point from their opening five matches, two of which came from a two-goal lead to lose 3-2.

“We knew it was going to be a massive game at home. We got the three points we needed and now we just have to move forward for next week’s game (at home to Newcastle),” McNeil added.

“We played well in the previous games but we didn’t get any points and that can be the most frustrating thing.

“But the Premier League is unforgiving. It’s all about points on the board. It’s an unforgiving league.

“We need to enjoy our performance and continue to get wins.”

Things don’t get any easier for Palace boss Oliver Glasner as, having taken three points from six matches, they host Liverpool next weekend.

“You roll up your sleeves. Our mentality is great, our character is great, we need to get the momentum back and we will try next week against Liverpool,” he said.