Everton Boss Unsworth Insists Players Are 'Giving Me Everything' After 2-2 Draw at Palace

David Unsworth has hailed his battling Everton side for picking up a "deserved" point in a hard fought 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace.

The toiling Toffees had to dig deep and come from behind twice for the second successive game after James McArthur and Wilfried Zaha had put the hosts in front.

A Leighton Baines penalty and Oumar Niasse's cool finish secured a point for the visitors and, whilst their lengthy wait for an away Premier League win goes on, Unsworth told the club's website that his players were giving everything to try and turn their form around.

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He said: “It was a really tough game. It’s always been a tough place to come to get a result and it was a hard-fought point but we go home with something I thought we deserved.

“The players have been terrific since the first training session when we came together. They’ve given me everything and I can tell the Everton fans that they’re giving me everything. They are working harder and I sense and see that there are improvements.

“I’m desperate to get these players on the field for longer. We’ve had an awful lot of games in a short space of time and not enough training sessions as I would have wanted. But we can be happy with how we fought and came back.”

The Blues' first leveller came in controversial circumstances as Niasse appeared to go down easily in the area under Scott Dann's challenge - a decision that made referee Anthony Taylor point to the spot.

In separate quotes from the Croydon Advertiser, Unsworth admitted it could have been a soft spot kick to receive but stated that he hadn't seen the incident properly to make an assessment.

He added: "If he got clipped or pushed, if it was a soft penalty, it was a soft penalty.

"I haven't seen it again, it was a long way away. There looked like there was contact from where I was standing."