Leighton Baines sure that first clean sheet is not far away

Sep 26 2007

LEIGHTON BAINES has vowed that Everton's back-four will stop at nothing to ensure the club get their first clean sheet of the season.

Everton have not enjoyed a shut-out since beating Portsmouth 3-0 on May 5 in the game that clinched their place in Europe and manager David Moyes was left seething by the manner in which his side conceded twice against Aston Villa on Sunday.

Though Baines’ outstanding performances in the past month have ensured he has escaped criticism, he takes no comfort from his own form and is desperate to help Everton get back to doing what they do best.

“We are not performing quite how we want at the minute,” said Baines, who is making the £5m fee it took to sign him from Wigan look a bargain. “Sometimes you just have to keep going until it clicks into place and that’s what we will be doing.

“The manager was disappointed with us against Villa and he felt the first goal could have been cleared much earlier. We should never have conceded the second goal either.

“We’ve got to make people work hard if they want to score against us.

“But we can’t beat ourselves up too much. I don’t think Villa played particularly well. It just turned out to be one of those days. But we have got a cup game to look forward to now and hopefully we can go on a good cup run.

“We haven’t done that for a few years. This offers us a good chance to get back on track and a win would give us a confidence boost going into the weekend. We need to be facing Middlesbrough on a positive.”

Skipper Phil Neville, meanwhile, insists Everton will not be using tiredness as an excuse for below par performances and is confident his side can summon the perfect response at Sheffield Wednesday in the Carling Cup tomorrow night.

Everton face four games in the space of 11 days, including potentially tricky trips to Metalist Kharkiv and Newcastle.

“Ever since I came to Everton I wanted to play Sunday, Thursday or Saturday, Wednesday and now we are in the situation, we’ll get on with it,” said Neville. “We’ll enjoy it and we won’t be fearful of the challenge.

“Tiredness is in the mind. Sometimes you can use it as an excuse. These games are something we all want.”