Inside Everton training ground as jokes heard at Finch Farm after Merseyside derby win over Liverpool

“You beat Liverpool and everyone wants to be here”, the steward joked as the Finch Farm car park neared capacity on Thursday afternoon.

Spring is in the air at Everton’s training ground which, sitting on the fringe of the Cheshire countryside, often feels like it is in a different climate to Liverpool city centre. There was, therefore, quite fittingly a spring in everyone’s step.

The complex has never been a bad place to go but the mood was understandably brighter the day after the night before. A Merseyside derby win does that.

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The staff are typically welcoming in Halewood but there was clearly a feel-good spirit that was a far cry from the sense of gloom and concern that has descended on Finch Farm over recent seasons. So many of the staff are Blues so when the club is struggling, few can hide their own feelings. So often the barriers have been lifted at the front gates to let in players, staff and, sometimes, reporters, with the club in crisis. Amid points deductions and relegation fights Finch Farm has often been the frontline of the battle, the public face of the club, and it has almost always been Sean Dyche - it is sometimes James Tarkowski - who has been tasked with the unenviable role of fronting up to the world and trying to project a sense of calm.

It was a different world on Thursday afternoon, however. That started with the players, said to have been notably “buzzing” when they arrived for their recovery day. Celebrations had extended into the tunnel and players areas at Goodison, where the