Tim Cahill pushing for full fitness

Oct 24 2007 by Nick Smith, Liverpool Daily Post

TIM CAHILL is pushing hard to hand Everton a major fitness boost ahead of tomorrow’s UEFA Cup clash with Larissa.

The Australian missed out on making his return in the Merseyside derby after almost three months out following the aggravation he suffered to his metatarsal break in a friendly against Werder Bremen at the end of July.

Since the original injury, sustained at Sheffield United on March 3, Cahill’s only senior action has been for his country in the summer’s Asia Cup.

But the extent of his recovery will be assessed ahead of tomorrow’s first group game, for which Thomas Gravesen could also be in contention for following his knee injury.

But Everton manager David Moyes is anxious to bring the extra dimension into his midfield that Cahill’s influence offers in an attempt to turn round his side’s run of recent results.

The first round UEFA Cup second leg success in Ukraine against Metalist Kharkiv and the previous Sunday’s 2-0 Premier League victory over Middlesbrough, are Everton’s only two wins in their last eight games.

And Moyes’s men have to recover from their Merseyside derby misery, when Liverpool hit back from a goal down to win 2-1 in controversial fashion on Saturday. But according to centre-back Alan Stubbs, focusing on the positives rather than the pain of Saturday’s defeat will help steel the side for the challenge posed by their Greek opponents.

“We have got to forget about the derby,” said Stubbs. “We have got a big game on Thursday and if we play the way we did from 15 minutes onwards to just after half-time, then I think we will be fine.

“Our performance was much better against Liverpool. The result was obviously very disappointing but coming away from the derby with a draw would have set us up nicely for the game against Larissa.

“We just have to dust ourselves down now and we have got a great game to lift ourselves up in. I wouldn’t have thought we’d lost four of the last five if someone had asked me that. I don’t think that’s a fair reflection.

“But we have just got to keep going. Things will turn for us. We never got the rub of the green against Liverpool. We feel as if we have been robbed but performance-wise the manager was quite happy with us and we look forward now to going into Thursday.”

Tickets for the Larissa game are on general sale from Evertonfc.com, by calling the dial-a-seat service on 0870 4421878 or from the Goodison Park End box office, which is open until 6pm tomorrow. The cost is £20 adults, £10 concessions.