By Chloe Reynolds (13/2/26)
Above: Interim head coach Scott Phelan Photo: Everton FC
On a two game winning streak, Everton host fellow strugglers West Ham in what is an important game at the bottom of the table. Chloe Reynolds brings us everything from Scott Phelan’s press conference.
It was Phelan’s first game in charge last Sunday and the coach shared his thoughts and emotions on last week’s victory: “I enjoyed every moment of it to be honest. It was A different week, definitely, and it’s the initial reaction at the start of the week because it’s not always easy to see somebody lose their role.
“My initial reactions, and rightly so, regardless of the results on Sunday, were really positive. And that’s how, what we tried to explain to the group as well, that there’s still more than enough time to enjoy this period from now to the end of the season. There’s some opportunity for us to really make some good moments, the result helped, with a real positive spring in my step and this following week has proved that way also.”
Phelan also provide an injury update confirming no new injuries to an already damaged squad “no, similar to what we’d expect. Obviously, we’d just come off the grass right now. We’ve still got a session to complete, so it’s far from finalised. But as I say, the players have trained in a good way and We wouldn’t expect too many changes.”
Despite only being in the role for a week, Phelan was full of praise for goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan, who had a stellar game last weekend during Everton’s victory against London City Lionesses: “she’s a really talented goalkeeper, arguably as good as anybody in the league, I think she proved that on Sunday. Her presence on the pitch can help fill others with confidence.
“Her personality is a big one off the pitch also. She’s somebody that sets standards on a day-to-day basis. She lives her life in a professional way. She’s made a massive impact over the short time that I’ve been here, but also over the course of the season. Obviously, she’s had a period out injured, but in between the moments, she’s a really talented goalkeeper and we’re really, really happy that she’s in our goal, not the opponents.”
Pelan is looking to get a third win on the bounce for the Toffees, and he has shared what his plans are to keep the momentum up to achieve this at the weekend “I think when you’ve previously won a game and we’ve obviously won 2 on the bounce, I think we quite simply, we refer back to whatever we did well, and we used that as a framework to keep moving forward. I think a lot of the conversations with the players have been around what types of behaviours they can bring to the pitch, not necessarily technically or tactically, them as individuals, things like teamwork, togetherness, commitment.”
“So regardless of the results and form, that is something that we’ll always try and stress as our foundations to move forward. The game this weekend will be no different, whether it’s a team at the top of the table, the bottom or somewhere in the middle, we’ll always fall back on what we think is important. And also what’s important is individuals, we hope if enough of them things are ticked off correctly, there’ll be a good performance at the end of that.”
The opponents in West Ham are also coming of the back of an important win, closing that gap at the bottom of the table and the Liverpool-born interim coach shared his thoughts on the side: ” Expecting a tough game, but an exciting one. The opportunity to come back to our home stadium, at the start of the season we were really excited to obviously use that as our home ground and none of that excitement has left.”
“All over the course of the season, results may have differed. But we’re desperate to come back to play at home. The support that we noticed away the previous game was just loud and the players definitely responded to that. You know, they mentioned it after the game. They could hear the chants and the encouragement from the stands. So we’re desperate to go and play a good game because we expect a similar noise. We want to make our ground a tough place to come.”
Everton face West Ham United at Goodison Park on Sunday at 12pm.
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