Frank Lampard hails Mason Holgate after ailing defender earns Everton ‘huge’ win

Frank Lampard revealed Mason Holgate climbed off his sick bed to cure Everton’s away day blues and hand them a massive survival lifeline.

The defender’s header earned a vital 2-1 win at Leicester to propel the Toffees out of the Premier League relegation zone after a first away win since August.

They are a point above Leeds and Burnley with a game in hand having been five points behind the Clarets before last week’s 1-0 win over Chelsea.

Vitalii Mykolenko’s brilliant volley had given them the lead only for comical defending to gift Patson Daka a leveller.

Holgate restored their lead before the break and Everton boss Lampard praised the defender as well as recognising the importance of the victory.

He said: “He was sick yesterday, he couldn’t train with us, couldn’t travel with us and arrived at the hotel separately and then woke up this morning and said ‘I’m playing this game.’ That is the attitude which will get us through.

“We’re still in a relegation fight, if we want to get out of it, it has to be together as a club and we’ve seen that in recent weeks.

“(It is defining) only if we make it defining but it’s a huge result for confidence. We haven’t got back-to-back wins for a while so the players should take huge confidence.

“A week ago on Saturday we were five points from safety and now we’re a point safe but there is more to do. We can buy into it but we have to make sure we protect against over confidence.”

Yerry Mina cleared Daka’s early goalbound shot but Everton took the lead after just six minutes.

Leicester were slow to react from a throw-in and Alex Iwobi crossed for Mykolenko on the edge of the box and the Ukraine international smashed a brilliant volley into the bottom corner.

We haven't got back-to-back