Tuesday 26 December 2017 19:15, UK
Sam Allardyce saluted Everton's spirit as his depleted side earned a battling point at West Brom.
The Toffees rode their luck at times against a Baggies side desperate to end their alarming winless run in the Premier League, but held on to extend their unbeaten run under Allardyce to seven games.
"It's a great point for us, there's no doubt about that, given the pressure we were put under by West Brom today," Allardyce told Sky Sports. "The team was resilient enough to hold out.
"There was some brave work from the defenders and goalkeeper when needed, perhaps from West Brom's point of view there was a little bit of sloppy finishing, which is probably why they are where they are.
"But overall I'm pleased with the point and I'm pleased with the performance, certainly defensively with the players we had available to select.
"We had lots of young lads in the side, some experience and lots of players missing that I would have loved to have had the chance to select today.
"The squad has been tested to the limit today and we've managed to get a point.
"In the end, Aaron (Lennon) and Oumar (Niasse) nearly won it for us with the best chance of the game, but it was a battling point rather than a good performance."
Allardyce's options were so threadbare ahead of the trip to The Hawthorns that he had no option but to bring Yannick Bolasie back from his year-long injury absence.
"We didn't want to start him, we wanted to introduce when the game was more strung out and the players were more strung out towards the end and try and exploit those spaces that people leave," the Toffees boss added.
"But because of the few players we had to select from today, we decided to throw him on from the start and give him 60 minutes and see where we went from there."
