Beattie has stated case with display

Dec 5 2006 By Mark Lawrenson, Daily Post

EVERTON might have a lot of players missing at the moment - but up front there's a really healthy competition for places developing.

If an 18-year-old can come back from serious injury in the way James Vaughan did against West Ham, then he is looking like a genuine star of the future.

With another teenager, Victor Anichebe, also waiting in the wings, the fight for places is just what David Moyes needs to get the best out of his top two strikers.

Especially James Beattie. The way he ran for that ball on Sunday was almost as if he sensed Vaughan and Anichebe breathing down his neck - and there was no way he was going to let them catch him.

He managed to get to it and put in a great ball that led to Leon Osman's opener.

I was talking here last week about how important it was for Beattie to get back to what he was always good at.

Gordon Strachan always talks about how when Beattie was at Southampton he would run himself into the ground and pull defenders all over the place with his movement.

That's exactly what he showed against West Ham and it sends out the perfect message to Moyes - and to the rumours tipping him for a move in the January window.

The Everton manager wants Beattie to get his rewards and he will surely start scoring if he sticks to working as hard as this.

And he has to. Because while he is still the number one choice to play alongside Andrew Johnson at the moment, he needs no greater incentive to work on his game than what Vaughan did at the end.

• Mark Lawrenson was talking to NICK SMITH