Sam asks if Tomkins is “maturing”

Sam Allardyce has put the James Tomkins Goodison issue to bed by telling the player it’s time to grow up.

After the Kevin Mirallas incident last Saturday at Goodison Park the manager said: It’s about maturity, isn’t it?

“It’s about learning from your mistakes. We all make mistakes and those who become better people and better players are the ones that don’t make those mistakes again and learn from it.

“So it’s a big challenge to James now, whether he has learned from it and whether he is maturing now as an adult.”

He added: “It was rather silly what James did. He understands that. He knows what he did was not right and ultimately he shouldn’t be getting involved in the first place.

“It was not the type of reaction you want to see from your players.”