Tom Cleverley scores dramatic late victor as Everton down Newcastle United

Stones’ comments came after Cleverley snatched a 1-0 Barclays Premier League victory for his team with the final touch of the game at Newcastle on Boxing Day.

They have won just seven of their 39 matches since the start of the year in all competitions, and their Premier League points record of 27 points from 36 games would have seen them relegated had it occurred over the course of a full campaign rather than two half-seasons.

“It is odd to say that I am happy with the fans after we lost, but it was a good feeling to get that at the end of the game”, concluded the new signing.

“It will be a tough game but there is no reason why we can not win there”.

Asked if it was a good thing to have another game so quickly, the Republic of Ireland keeper told nufctv: “In one way, but in another way, I don’t agree with the turnaround in games. That’s what we want from him”, McClaren said. Traditionally, the team bottom at Christmas suffers relegation five months later, though Leicester, last season, and Sunderland in 2013-14, were bottom at Christmas and both survived.

“He is strong and quick, he is a modern-day defender, and he is now starting to defend the box better than he was”.

At that point Everton had completed a mighty 200 passes, and Newcastle just 50.

Martinez’s men enjoyed total dominance of possession in the early stages, but Newcastle nearly went in front against the run of play through Aleksandar Mitrovic, who should have done better than head tamely wide from Daryl Janmaat’s cross. He needs to hold that emotion and control it – but we should never take the aggression out of his game.

England worldwide Ross Barkley was withdrawn in the 69th minute as a precaution, while the manager also offered a warning ahead of the home game against Mark Hughes’ Stoke City on Monday.

But Elliot was to suffer agony at the hands of Cleverley, his weak punch from a corner dropping straight to the midfielder who headed into an empty net.

He said: “No, not at all, I think it’s better”.

Roberto Martinez’s side looked to have squandered their dominant display with a series of missed chances until Cleverley popped up with his perfectly timed intervention to stun St James’ Park.

“We’ll get out there and hopefully put it right against West Brom and maybe get a bit of luck that we deserve”, he said. The 54-year-old said: “We’ve had this two or three times where we’ve thought, “This is it now, we can really kick on’ and take the performances and the results and go forward, and then we’ve dropped back. We did it last season so we know how it feels to win there, and we will remember that on Monday”.