Roy Keane reacts as Everton fan anger directed at Sky Sports pundits amid defeat by Manchester United at Goodison Park
Roy Keane reacted to “a lot of anger” around Goodison Park as Everton were beaten by Manchester United by predicting that the club “will be fine” this season.
The Sky Sports pundit said live on the broadcaster’s match coverage after the final whistle on 26 November that fans had directed their ire at the panel in the studio amid a furious response to the 10-point deduction imposed on the club during the international break.
But despite a 3-0 defeat on the night Keane believes Sean Dyche will regroup and has a “really decent” group of players who will see the Toffees through a tough period.
Keane said (1m 40s): “Everton have made a lot of mistakes so I think there was a lot of anger here at the ground today. There was anger towards us here [in the studio] even, they seemed to be angry with everybody.
“But Dyche has got to, and I think he will do, just put that to the side… I think the group of players that he has they look like a really decent group, they’ve got a lot of experience in the group, really good pros and young, [Seamus] Coleman, [James] Tarkowski, these lads have played hundreds and hundreds of football matches…
“The anger is going to be there for a while no doubt. But from Dyche’s point of view, his staff and his players, if they keep performing like they did today they’ll be fine.”
Toffees against the world
When the league authorities, rival clubs, the hierarchy at Goodison Park, and simple luck seem to have teamed up against Everton in recent months then it is little surprise the fans have a lot of upset to express.
Even on a night where the supporters put their all into creating a huge atmosphere in order to help spur the team to a result, and got a pretty strong response from the players, they were rewarded with a deceptively heavy defeat.
Alejandro Garnacho’s goal for the ages after just three minutes put the home side on the back foot, but Dyche’s players still rallied to dominate the rest of the first half.
Until the penalty conceded by Ashley Young inside an hour Everton would probably have remained confident to fight back for a result.
So Keane is right that more performances like that should rectify a situation that has been made to look far worse than it was just a fortnight ago.
The feelings of injustice at the heavy punishment won’t go away when questions continue to grow around the regulatory framework in the top flight, but there still feels like enough in this team to get behind and fight away from relegation danger.
In other Everton news, Gary Neville witnessed something for the first time in the Goodison director’s box during the protests.