Moyes’ meeting has lifted Toffees morale, says Neville

PHIL NEVILLE has revealed a no-holds-barred meeting between Everton manager David Moyes and his players provided the catalyst for the mini-revival which has lifted the club off the bottom of the Premiership.

Moyes called his squad together for everyone to air their views after a particularly poor performance against Manchester City immediately before the last break for international fixtures earlier this month.

There was a frank exchange of views from all parties and since then the Toffees have slowly started to improve on their disastrous start to the campaign.

Everton became the first side to take points off Chelsea this season in a 1-1 draw at Goodison Park and on Saturday a goal from Simon Davies secured a 1-0 win at fellow strugglers Birmingham.

Neville said: “We had a meeting before we went away for the last batch of internationals and we said ‘enough is enough’ and since then our performances have improved.

“Every now and again in football you need to air your views. We had just lost quite badly at Manchester City with a performance that was not up to standard.

“The boss got us in for a meeting. It was one of those meetings every football club has. I’ve had it many times in my career and I’ve always thought the benefits are always positive rather than negative. The players opened up, the manager opened up and everyone was left in a positive frame of mind. It was a positive meeting and since then our fortunes, mood and confidence has changed.”

Neville believes Everton have rediscovered that knack of being hard to beat with the kind of gritty performance at St Andrews that was their trademark last season.

He said: “Results had improved a little bit but still we needed to pick up a victory and the game was massive for us. The boss left us in no uncertain terms about what we needed to do.

“Sometimes you have to show a bit of bottle and there were a lot of determined players out there. Sometimes when you are in the form we are in, it’s not pretty at times.

“But we kept a clean sheet and the players were willing to put their head in where it hurts and tackle all over the pitch and that aggression helped us in putting Birmingham on the back foot for large parts of the game.

“It was definitely a must-win game for us. It would have opened up a little bit of a gap at the bottom if Birmingham had beaten us but we still believe we are too good to be down there.

“Now we are off the bottom and hopefully Saturday proves to be a bit of a turning point for us.”

Blues keeper Maik Taylor, so often their saviour this season, took the blame for Davies’ goal and knows a long, hard winter is ahead for Steve Bruce’s side.

The one big plus point for Blues was the form of rookie Irish midfielder Neil Kilkenny who came so close to snatching a point with a free-kick that hit the inside of a post and came out.

Keeper Taylor said: “He is a very promising young lad. He has no fear out there and he wants to get on the ball all the time and show his qualities and he did very well for us.

“It is difficult for him coming into a side that is not getting results at the moment. He’s done fantastically well and is going to be a big player for us.”

Opta Fact: Birmingham have taken just one point from a possible 18 at St Andrews this season.

Opta Fact: Simon Davies ended a barren run of 36 Premiership games without a goal, since he last netted against Charlton for Spurs in February 2004.