Back to league rush after thrill of first England goal

It was a special feeling to score my first goal for England earlier this week, one of the best feelings you will experience as a footballer.

The 5-0 win over Czech Republic followed by a 5-1 victory in Montenegro means that we are off to the perfect start in qualifying for the European Championships, which take place next summer.

Sadly, however, the enjoyment and pride of scoring my first international goal was overshadowed by the racist abuse that was aimed at some of my England teammates from the Montenegro supporters.

Whilst the players were happy with the result in the changing room after the final whistle, a lot of us were really disappointed at what had taken place. It put a dampener on the night.

There is no place for racism in football and society, it’s unacceptable and now it is for Uefa to decide on appropriate punishment.

In terms of the game itself, which is what we should be talking about, it was particularly pleasing to score because it was a move we had worked on in training just a few hours earlier on the morning of the game.

We had practised it a few times and every player knew the exact run I was going to make. So, in the 30th minute when Ross Barkley delivered a great cross, I climbed above my man and managed to direct the ball into the corner of the net. It was a special moment made even better by celebrating the goal in front of the travelling England fans.

As soon as the final whistle was blown, Jordan Pickford came over to me, shook my hand and joked that I needed to do that more regularly for Everton!

That’s what Jordan is like - we had a laugh about it because we are good friends and teammates for the Blues.

In my two years at Everton I’ve scored a couple of goals, but I’m determined to get many more and hopefully I can contribute more at the attacking end of the pitch before the end of the season.

I re-joined my Everton teammates back at our training base, USM Finch Farm, on Wednesday. A good number of our first-team players had also been away representing their respective nations across the world, which in itself underlines the quality that we have assembled in our squad.

Now all the players’ attention is back on the Premier League and our upcoming fixture against West Ham United this weekend.

Before the international break, we produced a fine performance to topple Chelsea 2-0 at Goodison Park.

The atmosphere created by our fans that afternoon was electric and spurred us on to one of our best performances of the season.

It was a really important result to beat a top-six team, a crucial stepping stone going forward.

Whenever we play, the manager Marco Silva provides the players with a clear idea of what we need to do.

We go into every game knowing exactly what our roles are, which is one of the most important aspects as a player.

Marco is really good at communicating his messages and is an excellent man-manager too, talking to players individually which helps to fill you with confidence.

The manager has been great with me since he joined the club and I'm really enjoying playing for him.

We are determined to move up the Premier League table and build on the victory against Chelsea with another strong showing against West Ham.

So, we travel to the capital with confidence. Seventh position in the league remains within our grasp and although we are a few points behind the teams immediately above us, we still have an opportunity to achieve that goal.