English Woman's Journal - Dyche hopes Calvert-Lewin can help Everton beat the drop

Calvert-Lewin's late penalty sealed a 1-1 draw for relegation-threatened Everton at Newcastle on Tuesday and was the 27-year-old's first goal in more than five months.

"We had been talking about what kind of goal gets you going again?," Dyche told a press conference ahead of Saturday's match at home to fellow strugglers Burnley, his former club. "On this occasion it is a penalty.

"We hope that is the catalyst that takes all that noise away and changes the storyline.

"Strikers just want to score goals. Beto has got a couple and now Dom has got one.

"That's a good sign and I think both of them worked very hard the other night -- they played hard, worked hard and both looked sharp in their different ways."

Calvert-Lewin, who won the last of his 11 England caps against Ukraine in July 2021, has been plagued by injuries in recent seasons.

He returned in August following hamstring trouble in the 2022/23 campaign, only to fracture his cheekbone at Aston Villa in his first game back.

Calvert-Lewin came back to score in three successive games in September but had failed to hit the target since October before this week's penalty at St James' Park.

"I am very pleased for Dom," Dyche said. "I thought he put in a real good shift when he came on. Obviously the penalty helps, but I thought he was brave to take it as well.

"It's not easy when you've not been scoring and there's a bit of noise (criticism) around you, like there has been since I've been here and he did well to put it in."

Everton will look to end an unwanted club record of 13 games without a Premier League win when they face Burnley at Goodison Park.

The Merseysiders are three places above and seven points better off than the Clarets as they chase their first league win since beating Burnley 2-0 at Turf Moor in mid-December.

Dyche added he would still be without Andre Gomes and Arnaut Danjuma, with the fitness of Amadou Onana to be assessed.

F.Stewart--EWJ