James Tarkowski shares insight into Beto character after 'amazing' Everton moment

James Tarkowski was full of praise for Everton team-mate Beto and believes his goal against Fulham was a reward for all the hard work he puts in on the training ground. The forward replaced Dominic Calvert-Lewin nine minutes from time and went on to head home a stoppage-time equaliser against Marco Silva’s side after Alex Iwobi opened the scoring.

It was a first Premier League goal of the season for the 26-year-old, who also scored in the Carabao Cup in August and five times in all competitions last term after a summer move from Udinese.

And Tarkowski believes it was just a matter of time before things started to turn around for Beto, given the work he puts in on the training pitch.

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“He works so hard,” the defender replied when asked about the Lisbon-born frontman. “He is constantly outside working on every aspect of his game and [tonight] he gets his rewards.

“You can see how much it means to him, and I am really pleased for him because he works so hard and he hasn’t played much this year, so for him to get that moment is amazing.

“For someone who works as hard as him, things are only going to work out for him at some point. It is tough when you are not playing; it is hard to stay match ready and match fit.

“He does everything he can to be ready to play, and he gets his rewards tonight. He caused problems, running in behind, and he was in the box getting his head on things. I am really pleased for him because he deserves it.”

The Guinea-Bissau international is yet to start a game in the league so far this season and, as a result, has been linked with a move away from Goodison Park. But despite his lack of game time, Tarkowski has praised how Beto has failed to let that get him down.

“Every player, at every level, unless you are Messi or Ronaldo, suffers a bit of confidence issues at times," he said. “I have been through it myself.

"When you are not playing, it is difficult; I am sure we all do, but he never shows it, he just works hard and sticks at it. Like I say, he gets his rewards tonight.”

Sean Dyche admitted his Everton side had been second best throughout the contest at Goodison, but while accepting that they didn’t play well, Tarkowski was pleased with the character the Blues showed to rescue themselves a point.

He said: "We didn’t play well at all, really. A few little patches of play in the first half, and we nearly had a goal.

“It was only really late on when we went a bit more direct into the box, with Beto and Keano (Michael Keane) up there causing a few problems, we could have scored two or three late on. It wasn’t our best by any means tonight, but we stuck at it and got a point.

“It is tough to play your best all the time. I think when we start slow, it can feel flat in the whole place, and it definitely felt like that tonight. Sometimes it takes one person to change that, but we never really got going.

“Maybe if the goal would have stood it would have been nice, but sometimes you have just got to stick at it, and sometimes there are going to be times when we won’t play well, and you have to just stick to our job and what we are good at, and we will score goals at some point.

“Tonight is one of those nights. We didn’t play well for much of the game, but we managed to get a point.”