Lukaku: Everton boss ‘woke us up’ at half-time

Romelu Lukaku: Everton striker has been linked with PSG

Romelu Lukaku: Everton striker has been linked with PSG

Romelu Lukaku has revealed Roberto Martinez had to wake Everton up at half-time in Monday night’s dramatic 3-2 win at West Brom.

Everton were trailing 1-0 at the break and Craig Dawson’s header made it 2-0 just 10 minutes after the interval, but Lukaku struck back immediately and the striker says he always believed Everton could win at The Hawthorns.

“I don’t think we started too well in the first half and we conceded before half-time,” Lukaku told the club’s website. “The manager woke us up at half-time and we tried to do the rest. We conceded an early goal in the second half – but we showed a good mentality and I never had the feeling that we would lose the game.

“When I scored my first goal I knew we would win the game because we had more of a grip on the game.

“I thought Ross [Barkley], Arouna [Kone] and Gerard [Deulofeu] all did really well – and I just tried to score and create goals, so I’m really happy with the win and with the goals.”

 

The Belgian striker netted his fifth and sixth goals of the campaign – between Arouna Kone’s well-placed finish – to ensure victory – and the first time Tony Pulis has lost a Premier League game from a leading position of two goals or more.

It was also the first time in the Premier League era that Everton have fought back from two goals down to win away from home.

“The spirit in this team is good, especially now if you look at the back four.

“Ramiro has come in, Brendan Galloway has been playing for a few weeks and that is not the defence we play with each week.

“Bainesy [Leighton Baines] is to come back, Seamus [Coleman]is to come back and up front we have Kevin Mirallas to come back in a few weeks as well, so the competition is going to be tough in a few weeks.

“But that is what we want, we want to improve and finish as high as we possibly can,” added Lukaku.