Tosun punishes Town amidst Allardyce abuse
Sam Allardyce needs the skin as thick as a rhino’s to be Everton manager.
Even as his team recorded a comfortable away victory thanks to goals from Cenk Tosun and Idrissa Gueye, he was still targeted by the travelling supporters.
Before the game, a large blue banner emblazoned with “Our survey says… Get out of our club” was displayed in reference to the recent survey in which fans were asked for their opinion of Allardyce.
And at sporadic points during the 90 minutes, abusive chants were aimed at the ex-england manager, despite Everton being on a run of only one defeat in seven games.
Like him or not, Allardyce has guided the Toffees away from relegation danger when he arrived and they are on course to finish eighth.
But Big Sam could only shrug his shoulders when asked how the negative reaction towards him made him feel.
“I honestly can’t produce any more than I am doing,” he said.
“I am sorry if some fans don’t like it, but we are trying as hard as we possibly can. That’s myself, my staff, and especially the players.
“What can I say when you’ve got 14 points from the last seven games and when the club was in a very difficult position when I arrived.
“It’s just one of those things. But if we keep winning, hopefully the fans might change it to love.”
Huddersfield boss David Wagner had described the game as a cup final in which the Terriers could all but secure their survival.
But they struggled to create chances. Their best one saw Alex Pritchard pull the ball back to Rajiv van La Parra on the edge of the box, but the Dutchman shot over from a promising position. The visitors had not threatened too much either, but when van La Parra gave the ball away cheaply, Tosun punished that costly lapse.
Theo Walcott carried the ball from midfield before releasing Tosun and the Turkish striker did the rest with a good finish across the goalkeeper into the bottom corner.
Having arrived in January from Besiktas for £27 million, this was a fifth goal in 12 appearances.
With that advantage, Everton looked to wrap things up and three times in the opening 10 minutes of the second half, they had chances to do that.
Nikola Vlasic and Seamus Coleman both shot tamely at Jonas Lossl, before the Irishman was denied by the goalkeeper’s legs with the best opportunity of the lot.
The home side could have levelled when van La Parra picked out Pritchard in space in the box, but the midfielder missed his kick at the vital moment.
It proved costly as the Toffees did make the game safe with just under a quarter of an hour left.
Leighton Baines touched substitute Oumar Niasse’s cross back to Gueye, who took aim and found the net with a sweet strike.
There was no sign of a comeback and a nervous couple of weeks are now in store for Huddersfield. With Southampton winning below them, they are now just three points above the drop.
And with fixtures away to Manchester City and Chelsea and at home to Arsenal on the final day in Arsene Wenger’s last League game in charge of the Gunners, they face a difficult run-in.
Wagner is convinced their current tally of 35 points is not enough, but it’s his job to instil his players with the belief to stay up.
“It feels like a missed opportunity,” he said. “But we still have three further matches to get over the line.
“It’s a difficult task but we and other teams have shown this season that it is possible to steal points from the top six.
“We worked our socks off last year to play these opponents. Now we’re playing them in the last week of the season and we have to get points. I will lift everybody.”