‘Just one thing on my mind’: Inside Ashley Young’s brave fight back after Everton nightmare

Fast forward almost exactly one month and the Portman Road scenes on Saturday it couldn’t have been more different. After Michael Oliver whistled to seal Everton’s first away win in 2024, the away final erupted in celebration.

The nearly 3,000 Blues who had crossed the country in hope rather than anticipation erupted as Everton players rushed to join them. Leading the pack, along with goalscorer Michael Keane, was Ashley Young. When he got to the stand he clenched his fists and roared with delight to the fans who serenaded him.

“Young was excellent again,” offered Sean Dyche in the post-match press conference. “He is another one that people question. As I said recently, he is a mature professional, he understands that you are questioned, but his mentality remains firm.”

That mentality has been key to the rejuvenation of a player who could have let that missed penalty destroy his confidence. Instead, he came out stronger for it. He had nowhere to hide: a defensive meltdown saw him thrust into the starting lineup just days later. so it was a crucial game for Leicester City.

At the King Power Stadium he operated down the left in place of the ill Vitalii Mykolenko and it was Young’s clever through ball that found Iliman Ndiaye in space on the edge of the box. Ndiaye had a lot to do to get the ball and open the scoring though the intelligence behind Young’s pass it meant that he fully deserved the assistance attributed to him.

He was perhaps luckier on that front seven days later when he was awarded an assist for Dwight McNeil’s stunning long-range equalizer against Crystal Palace, but that he was even present was a mark of his resilience. The Leicester left-back was now back for what turned out to be Everton’s first win of the season.

Two clean sheets have followed, Young instrumental like Everton have rediscovered the resilience that was so important last season but so conspicuously absent during the miserable opening of this campaign. Again, his versatility has been key – he was back on the left for Newcastle, then on the right at Ipswich.

But psychological strength is what has been so vital. This is a player who has won league titles in England and Italy, won a Europa League winners medal and was once a regular fixture in the England set-up. Last week, he confirmed his desire to continue his playing career until the age of 40, saying: “I’m just taking each season as it comes until my body tells me I can’t take it anymore. Then I think that’s the day I’ll hang up my boots. But it could still be a few years for me. I still feel as fit as I have in years.”

Those comments came at the end of an international break that saw his son, Tyler Young, make his professional debut for Peterborough United.

Still being in a position to not only play in the Premier League, but to have an impactrequires immense discipline at his age – few would like him if he dreamed of swapping Dyche’s infamous Gaffer’s Day and the ups and downs of Everton’s current situation for beach walks and ice creams and a quiet life away from the training ground That’s not in the cards just yet, though.

For those who know him best, it comes as little surprise. A long-time insider described Young as “a committed, competitive and passionate individual who plays football for the love of the sport”.

He told the ECHO: “What he has in abundance is a selfless belief in his teammates and himself.

“He was told in his younger days that he was a bit thin and small, even to the point where he wasn’t initially offered a scholarship, so in typical Youngy fashion he worked even harder to prove that people he was wrong, which ended him in the Watford first team within 12 months.

“Simply put, Ashley is a footballer who lives his childhood dream every time he pulls on a pair of football boots and when he does, working hard and winning is the only thing on his mind.”

Important to Young’s time at Everton has been the role of Dyche, who was a key figure at Watford when he broke into first-team football early in his career. He’s a fan of Dyche’s honesty, so when the chance came to reunite with his former team-mate, he jumped at it.

Dyche’s faith has been important in recent weeks. Everton’s injury problems have meant that Young has had to take his fight on the field. His success has been helped by the support he knows he has.

“She is a very resilient, strong-minded and determined person,” the source added. “He loves playing football, even at 39. For him, age is just a number and Everton feel they have found an honest and straightforward manager in Sean Dyche who reflects his passion and thoughts”.

Young’s current form has been rooted in that relationship, but his personal fortitude has been crucial. What he has been doing on the pitch has reflected his influence.

Last season, Everton lost on penalties in the Carabao Cup at Goodison Park and left an in-form side completely out of contention. He started a run that saw the Blues go more than four months without a league win and pushed them perilously close to relegation battle.

This season, a defeat in similar circumstances it has had the opposite impact. Everton are four unbeaten since Young missed the penalty at the Park End. In this period, two victories and two clean sheets have been achieved and Young – with his two assists – has been key throughout.

So much so that this weekend his form was not only celebrated by Everton supportersbut by another figure from Watford’s recent past.

In his BBC Team of the Week, Troy Deeney heaped the praise as de Young said: “Young was brilliant at right-back against Ipswich. Not once was he beaten one-on-one, he just kept running and running, playing the full 95 minutes. A performance that was testament to the way he takes care of himself to keep playing at the highest level at his age.”