Michael Keane believes Everton just about edged Sunday's pulsating 2-2 draw against Nottingham Forest, but says despite the disappointment of not holding on to the lead, the performance was a step in the right direction. 

The Toffees came into the contest on the back of a demanding fixture away to the league leaders Arsenal in midweek and were eager to put things right. That was obvious from the outset and Everton started the game fast and on the front foot. 

"I thought we played well all game going forward," said the Everton defender. "We limited them to very few chances, but they were clinical. We could have done better for both goals they scored.  

"But in general, it was a really good response to our midweek game at Arsenal. The mentality was right, you could see the energy within the team and we showed quality at times, too.  

"Everyone in there is disappointed not to come away with three points because I think we edged it but it must have been a good game to watch because it was end to end."

That fast start rewarded the Blues with an early goal after Dwight McNiel was brought down inside the box. Demarai Gray stepped up to covert the resulting penalty. 

The forward re-introduced into the starting XI to lead the Everton attack, also played a hand in Everton's second goal of the game. He delivered the initial ball into the box from the free-kick that was eventually nodded home by Abdoulaye Doucoure. 

"We work on them (set-pieces) in training," explained Keane. "We know we can be dangerous on them. Tarky [Tarkowski] won a great header initially, I have anticipated it and flicked it on. Luckily, Doucs has attacked it.

"It doesn’t always come off but when it does it is nice because we work on them."

Keane also added the grit and determination shown in the contest was a marker for the team going into future away matches this season. 

"Mentally it’s a step in the right direction," told the defender.  "We came here and took the game to them. We made it difficult for them. We did a lot of the right things and they are things we need to carry on going forward.   

"We spoke before the game about our away form not being good enough both this year and last season. It's a fresh start today and we wanted to start putting things right."