Young: Resilience Key To Blues Unbeaten Run

Ashley Young says Everton have a “never-say-die attitude” – and believes that was on show during Saturday’s comeback result against Fulham.

A goal down and heading into stoppage time at Goodison Park, the Toffees kept pushing for an equaliser, hoping to extend their unbeaten run to five matches.

Assisted by Young, Beto popped up for the Blues in the 94^th minute, heading past goalkeeper Bernd Leno to secure a hard-fought point and maintain their impressive record.

Half of Everton’s 10 attempts during the encounter came after the 80^th minute, and Young – speaking after the match – discussed his side’s gameplan, while praising the Blues’ resilience.

“You see the way we've gone about our job, we've given up possession,” he remarked. “We knew at times that Fulham would have a lot of possession. It's about staying in shape and staying focused as a team; no one jumping out of our shape and letting the balls come through the middle.

“We wanted them to go wide and that's exactly what we did. We gave them a lot of possession, but we've got that attitude where we can give up the possession and when we get the chance to create and get in the box, that's when we hit the [opposition].

“We've got that never-say-die attitude. We knew putting the ball in the box, putting [Michael Keane] up as a striker and we knew how to play off the bits. We got Keano and Beto in the box and boys who could put the ball in the box. I gambled to get to the back post to try and fire something back across goal and Beto was there to head it in.”

Young’s pullback to tee up Beto marked the full-back’s third assist of the season – and no Everton player has recorded more in the 2024/25 Premier League.

After Saturday’s game – which marked his seventh start of the campaign – the 39-year-old discussed his role within the Blues back four, revealing the team were “disappointed” not to earn a third-consecutive clean sheet.

“I'm in the team to do a job and to give that experience and get on the ball to play passes forward,” he explained. “Like I say, we were slightly disappointed, to be honest, after the game with the goal that we conceded and in the manner that we conceded it.

“But with the fight and the team spirit that we've got here, we know that we could go to the 95th minute and we knew we were going to create a chance. It was just being able to get on the end of it and score it.”

On goalscorer Beto, Young added: “He's always one of them players where he wants to get on the scoresheet. He's a striker. You know what strikers are like. They're selfish. They want to score goals.

“For him to come on the pitch, I don't think he's played a lot of football this season, but when he gets his chance, he wants to get in the box.

“He causes defences all sorts of problems. We know he can do that. As soon as he gets a chance to score, I'm just thankful that it was his head that was there to score it.”