Sean Dyche insists Everton must maintain their resilient displays full of belief to keep their strong connection with "terrific" Evertonians for the crunch season run-in.

The Blues travel to Wolves on Saturday buoyed by their terrific 5-1 victory at high-flying Brighton & Hove Albion in their previous away clash. That added to the two draws collected on the road beforehand at Leicester City and Crystal Palace respectively.

Everton's progress was halted on Sunday after a defeat to league leaders Manchester City at Goodison Park. But despite the result, Dyche believes his squad can still take plenty of positives from their performance against Pep Guardiola's treble-chasers.

Over the past three matches, Dyche’s men have scored seven and averaged an expected goals (xG) of 2.38.

Against City, the Toffees accumulated a higher xG - a metric intended to measure the probability of a shot resulting in a goal - than the now Champions League finalists.

And Dyche feels Everton can add that to their recent impressive displays to provide plenty of reasons for encouragement going into Saturday's clash at Molineux.

The Blues boss explained: “The performance level and the basics were there [against Manchester City] - as was the will and the demand to keep pushing to score goals. I was pleased with that against a top side.

“We had resilience within a performance and that’s important over the next two games.

“I think City showed their prowess again last night (in their 4-0 Champions League semi-final win over Real Madrid). People talk about expected goals, but I think ours was way in advance of theirs. That suggests we at least had a threat. On the day, they found key moments because they’re a top side."

Outlining the belief shown by Everton, Dyche added: “I don’t think the result reflected on the feel of our performance. I think Leicester was a good performance. Obviously, the game against Brighton was, too. I thought there was a performance against a top side in Man City.

“They’re so effective and they find ways of scoring, which they did. But there was a lot of good energy, a lot of belief in trying to get back into the game.”

Looking to sustain an improved run of away results, the Blues face a tough test against Saturday’s opponents. Wolves have won all of their previous four fixtures at Molineux, impressively keeping clean sheets across those 360 minutes.

Despite the challenge, Everton are unbeaten in four of the previous five away games, hammering a season-high tally of five goals past Brighton last Monday, while recording 23 attempts during a strong display against Leicester the week before.

Dyche recognises the primary goal for his team to maintain the impressive displays, acknowledging the need to keep the fans on board through their showings of fortitude.

“I think there’s a core respect from the fans of a team that are giving everything to win a game,” Dyche said, praising the Evertonians’ support. “When they don’t, they let them know – which is fair enough. The fans have been terrific ever since I got here. I can only speak from my time here, but they’ve backed everything we’re attempting to do, and they continue to do so.

“They want to see a team giving everything, and against Man City, they saw a team who were giving their all to take that game on and try to get something from the game on all the way until the final whistle.”

Confident the relentless Everton away support - 3,000 strong last week at the Amex - will be out in force at  Molineux on Saturday, Dyche added: “The energy and the commitment to the cause was apparent. We didn’t get the win, but the performance was there for the fans to grip hold of. We want to give them that.

“We want to give them wins, of course, but we want to give them a team who give everything. I thought that was on show, but just against a top-class opposition, who’ve proved that all season.

“It was always going to be a tough ask, but the mentality was firm, and the mentality of the fans was firm. We’ll need that over the next two games. Since I’ve been here, they’ve been there every week for us – good, bad, indifferent, home, and away. We’ve got to continue that connection because it’s important to us.”