Everton coach Frank Lampard said he broke his hand while celebrating Alex Iwobi’s late winner for his side against Newcastle United.
The Nigerian netted a 99th-minute goal as the Toffees sealed a 1-0 victory to lift Everton three points off the Premier League drop zone.
“I’ve broken my hand in the celebrations. My bones must be going soft, I don’t remember the moment,” joked Lampard after the match on Thursday.
“It was an amazing night and we need those nights. Spirit and togetherness, the players stood up tonight. It was not a night for quality or calm. It means so much to the stadium we all felt that. I wanted to use the atmosphere.”
The former Chelsea manager, who praised his boys for the victory, said the win is a testament to what the team can achieve especially playing with a man down.
‘We Proved What We Could Be’
“Everton fans wanted to see passion. We proved what we could be tonight,” he added.
“Newcastle are a good team, they will be alright. From our point of view, it was can we dig in? And can we get one or two opportunities when down to 10 men.”
A second-half interruption caused by a protestor tying himself to a goal post and a VAR review which led to Allan seeing red meant there were 14 minutes of added time at Goodison Park.
And it was Lampard’s men who took advantage as Dominic Calvert-Lewin teed up Iwobi to score the biggest goal of his much-maligned Everton career since a £40 million ($52 million) move from Arsenal three years ago.
When this fixture was postponed in late December due to an outbreak of coronavirus cases, it was Newcastle who was rooted in the bottom three.
However, the Magpies’ defeat at Chelsea on Sunday was their first in 10 games as the investment of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund has made an instant impact in their first transfer window.
Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, a boyhood Everton fan, described this game as the biggest for the Toffees in 20 years given the consequences of going down.
The club is in the process of building a £500 million new stadium, due to open in 2024, and have already lost the sponsorship of Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov after he was hit by sanctions from the UK government.
Usmanov’s long-term business partner and Everton owner Farhad Moshiri have pumped in over £500 million in signings since taking charge in 2016.
The Blues have precious little to show for that investment as a succession of managers have struggled to match Moshiri’s expectations.
An intense start from the hosts quickly fizzled out as Newcastle had the better of the first-half without creating many good chances.
Chris Wood headed straight at Asmir Begovic, while Fabian Schar nearly caught out the Bosnian with a free-kick from inside his own half.
The flow of a scrappy game was further interrupted by it taking seven minutes to free the protestor against fossil fuels from the post.
“I don’t know whether that (stoppage) affected us, but we weren’t the same team second-half,” said Newcastle boss Eddie Howe.
Once the action got back underway the introduction of England international Calvert-Lewin off the bench made a massive difference to the home side.
Calvert-Lewin has missed almost all of the season due to a variety of injuries and keeping him fit for the run-in is likely to play a huge part in Everton’s bid for survival.
Anthony Gordon forced Martin Dubravka into a stunning save with a fierce strike from outside the box before Calvert-Lewin just failed to connect with Richarlison’s dangerous low cross.
However, their momentum was cut short when Allan dived in on Allan Saint-Maximin to break up a counter-attack and was shown a straight red card after the intervention of VAR.
