THE temperatures may have dropped – but this harsh, biting season is beginning to warm up nicely for Everton.

And it’s being fired up by the goals of Marouane Fellaini. The slow burner that has been his Everton career so far has finally sparked into life and he provided his team’s first winning goal in nine games.

The Belgian has almost inevitably struggled to look like a £15m record signing since his move from Standard Liege. But suddenly, three goals in four games now make that look like money well spent and his last-minute header at the Reebok last night was priceless.

But perhaps even more encouraging for David Moyes is his first clean sheet of the season. And that – like the second half performance against Manchester United on Saturday – is something to build on.

The Reebok is not the place it once was, when over the years visits here on such unrelenting wintry nights have been about as welcome as your answer-phone flashing a message from Russell Brand.

But you still have to work hard to leave with something – and that’s exactly what the back four did. They have improved individually and as a unit, with the edginess and errors that have blighted most of the first two months of the season now seemingly a thing of the past.

With Phil Neville leading by customary example, Joseph Yobo and Phil Jagielka formed a strong central barrier in the face of a typically robust assault from Kevin Davies and Johan Elamnder, while Joleon Lescott looked back to his confident best.

And while Everton struggled for potency at the other end of the field for much of last night’s game, they persevered to force the breakthrough at the ideal time.

It ensured Bolton finished the night in the bottom three after going into the game searching for a first home win since the opening day of the season.

On that occasion, they saw off Stoke – also the last team Everton beat in any competition before last night, with a 3-2 victory at the Britannia on September 14.

So with both sides so desperate for three points it was perhaps inevitable that neither side would throw caution to the considerable wind that was sweeping across the Greater Manchester hills.

That, however, didn’t stop Moyes continuing with his commitment to a more attacking formation, the workrate of his two centre-forwards in the improved second half against United on Saturday impressing him sufficiently to reward them with another start at the Reebok.

This was despite the return to the fold of Tim Cahill following his three-game suspension for being sent off in the Merseyside derby a month ago – he had to settle for a place on the bench as Moyes named an unchanged line-up.