Everton must prepare to win ugly, says midfielder Sigurdsson

EVERTON must be prepared to win anyway possible to lift their spirits and turn their season around, Iceland international Gylfi Sigurdsson has said.

Everton needed a late penalty from Wayne Rooney to salvage a 1-1 draw against Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday and are 16th in the table with eight points and Sigurdsson said they were not far away from getting better results.

"Obviously the next game is an important one but, for us at the moment, we just need to win, pretty or ugly," the midfielder told the club's website (www.evertonfc.com) ahead of their Europa League game against France's Lyon on Thursday.

"We just need to get results and once we do that, the confidence will come back into the team and things will come a little bit easier for us.

"And I think if we get a couple of results back-to-back then we'll hopefully get going. I don't think we're too far away."

Everton are bottom of Group E after a 3-0 loss to Italian group leaders Atalanta and a 2-2 draw with Cypriot side Apollon Limassol. Lyon are a spot above Everton after two draws.

"It's a strange group. I think everyone can beat anyone," Sigurdsson said.

"There's a few good teams in there. You may need at least 10 points to go through and it will be nice to start (building towards) that on Thursday against a tough team.

"The boys and the staff are determined to work hard to turn this around because we've got good players. Personally and with all of the players collectively, we're just off our best.

"But they are small margins in football and I don't think we're a mile off getting results, and a couple of scruffy wins, 1-0 away or whatever it is, that pumps a little bit of confidence into the team and that's sometimes what you need."