Seamus Coleman insists Everton must win at places like Crystal Palace next season if they are to challenge further up the Premier League table.
The Toffees were the better side in a goalless draw at Selhurst Park on Saturday – a result which leaves Marco Silva’s side four points behind seventh-placed Wolves with two fixtures remaining.
After thrashing Manchester United 4-0 in their previous outing, as well as racking up a 1-0 victory over Arsenal recently, Everton would have wanted more from their trip to south London.
Bernard and Lucas Digne hit the woodwork and substitute Cenk Tosun saw a back-heeled effort brilliantly saved by Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita.
But, having settled for a share of the spoils, Coleman wants Everton to put those sort of games to bed next season.
“I think, with the confidence we’ve got, the lads are starting to play better,” he told evertonfc.com.
“We are more comfortable on the ball and do things that we weren’t doing two or three months ago when results weren’t going so well for us.
“But we need to be coming here and getting all three points to kick on, and that’s something we’ll be looking to do next season.
“I felt we dealt with Palace very well and their dangerous players. Just in front of goal, we got into some good positions and didn’t make the most of it. That’s something to try to build looking forward.
“It’s trying to find that consistency away from home at times, but I have to say the last couple of months we have looked much better.”
While Everton travelled to the capital buoyed by a big win over United, Palace also went into the game on the back of an impressive result.
Roy Hodgson’s side won 3-2 at Arsenal to confirm their Premier League survival, with defender Scott Dann admitting the Eagles did not soar to the same heights in their performance against Everton.
“In the run of play, they controlled the majority of the game,” he told Palace TV.
“We didn’t really get going in the first half, the second half was a much better performance defensively but we didn’t create as many chances as we’d like in the game so it’s a good point.
“You can say we weren’t at the same level we were last week slightly, but a lot of credit goes to Everton – they’ve been on a good run of late going into some good form and we just caught them on a good day. We had to fight and dig in at times and we’ve come away with a 0-0 so it’s a good point.
“It was a good point on the balance of play but with how well we played last week and the amount of goals we could have scored.
“It was disappointing not to get many chances today but you can play well like we did every week and some games you just have to dig in and try to ground out and take some points.”
