Sam Allardyce has urged Everton to get off to a fast start against Swansea City with the Blues boss determined for his side to produce a strong finish to the season.

Allardyce wants his players to pick up straight where they left off in the Merseyside derby last Saturday. The Toffees were firmly in the ascendancy in the final stages against their city rivals at Goodison, carving out a succession of chances and coming within inches of snatching a late winner.

With five Premier League matches to go this season, the Toffees manager wants his team to finish 2017/18 on a high and build on the progress made since he was appointed in late November.

Everton were just two points off the relegation zone when Allardyce watched from the Goodison stands as the Blues beat West Ham United 4-0 – they are now only two points behind Leicester City in eighth place.

Central to the rise up the league table has been their home form – Everton have lost just two of their past 12 games at Goodison Park, with the defeats coming against the top two teams in the Premier League in Manchester United and Manchester City.

Allardyce is now eager for the Toffees to build on their gritty victory at Stoke City in their last away clash and achieve Everton’s first back-to-back away triumphs since September 2016.

With Swansea just four points from the drop zone, he knows the Blues will be facing a side fighting for their Premier Leagues lives but urged his players to meet the challenge “head on”.

“We need to be at our best,” said Allardyce. “The players cannot allow themselves to slip from the levels they need to get against a team like Swansea that are fighting relegation.

“We want to go out and score the first goal because when that happens, everything becomes panicky and nervous when you’re in that position.

“If you lose the first goal when you’re down at the bottom it’s very difficult to come back from it.

“Our home form has been fantastic and we’ve just got to maintain away results now. We have to try and put together a performance like we did at Stoke last time we were away. We’ve got to get a result.”

Allardyce believes a win at Swansea can act a springboard for a strong finish to the season.

“We’ve continued to pick up points so we’re not got involved in that relegation battle - which is where we were when I first arrived,” he added.

“All the talk was, ‘We were fighting relegation’ and very quickly the players turned that around to, ‘How high can we finish’? We’ve certainly put ourselves in the position to finish strongly this season and in the past five games we’ll try and get as many wins as we can.”

A further positive that Allardyce has taken from the campaign has been the development of the squad’s young talent.

Everton have given significantly more first-team minutes to England youth internationals than any other professional club this season.

Dominic Calvert Lewin has made more appearances than any other Blues first-team player during 2017/18, while Jonjoe Kenny and Tom Davies have featured regularly under Allardyce.

Beni Baningime has also been involved at senior level recently – and was praised by the boss for injecting energy into Everton’s performance after coming on as a substitute against Liverpool last Saturday.

“We’ve got to give great praise to our young players – we have played more them than anybody else in the Premier League,” Allardyce said. “Nobody else has got close.

“Beni Baningime, he’s coming on well, too. They’ve had a fantastic experience and we hope that will even further improve next season.”