James Tarkowski and Keiynan Dewsbury-Hall were on target as Everton ended their troubled home run with a 2-0 win over Burnley, their first win at Hill Dickinson since December and moved within two points of sixth place.
After seven games in his new home, Tarkowski made the breakthrough by converting James Garner’s provocative set-piece to bring the Reds home against his old club.
Scoring his first goal in a year, the centre-back turned his ear to the away end as Everton laid the foundations to keep their European dreams alive.
Dewsbury Hall’s late dink secured the result after he was teed up by Iliman Ndiaye.
Burnley barely responded to Everton’s dominance, but Jordan Pickford’s stoppage time stop to deny Lyle Foster, his second after his sensational save against Newcastle last weekend, must have sunk the Clarets’ hearts.
The absence of in-form Jean Fleming due to injury may also be a contributing factor to Burnley’s lack of sharpness. There was little noise from the away side, but when Parker was replaced by Hannibal Mabry with 15 minutes remaining, chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing” could be heard.
After conceding two goals on the night, Burnley’s goal tally now stands at 58, with no other team scoring more goals than the Clarets in the Premier League this season.
Burnley’s consecutive defeats have increased the possibility that bottom-of-the-table Wolves could move closer to 19th place.
Moyes: “We can reach Europe this season”
Everton head coach David Moyes told TNT Sports:
“It would be great if we could get even closer to (Europe) where we are now.
“If you look back at my time at West Ham, we almost got relegated, then we went to Europe and then we got relegated three years in a row.
“The idea is that we want to keep pushing. We try not to talk about it if we can, but we want to be positive that we can do it. We are no longer talking about relegation at the club and we are trying to move on.”
“It’s a really important win. I keep saying the away supporters are treated great!”
“We didn’t do very well with the home support, but they stuck with us and recognized how well we were doing and applauded the players, especially Dwight McNeil, for the effort they put into the game.
“I congratulate the players on their efforts. We have some big games coming up and I hope everyone is looking forward to them.”
Parker: We were never in the game.
Burnley head coach Scott Parker told TNT Sports:
“We fell short in many aspects, partly because of the quality that Everton showed and their quality, but it was obvious to us.
“We weren’t in the game from start to finish. A lot of things go through your mind at this moment. We just looked second in a lot of ways and lacked real quality of the ball.
“In the first half, we couldn’t put the glove on them at all and we couldn’t match them.”
