Premiership: Unsworth sounds rallying call

Everton defender Dave Unsworth has seen it all at Goodison Park over the 10 years he has spent with the club in two spells.

Now he’s waiting to be introduced to another new manager with the departure of Walter Smith and arrival of David Moyes.

And his honest assessment of the current situation would be well worth noting by his teammates, who face a crunch home game with improving Fulham tomorrow knowing that wins are now crucial in their fight to avoid the drop.

Unsworth says: ‘‘We have got some massive, massive games coming up in the league and we have a fight on our hands - a relegation fight - and if people and players don’t think we have such a fight, they are going to need a slap in the face, because we are in it now and we have to do something about it.

‘‘And the only way is that you must roll your sleeves up and get stuck in and give it everything until the end of the season.

‘‘You can look for excuses all you want to explain the position we are in, but there’s no point in that, we must take the bad on the chin and bounce back.

‘‘Because if you don’t bounce back there is only one way you are going, and that’s the slippery slope.’’

And he added: ‘‘The players have got to stand up and be counted and be big and strong and do it for the fans.

‘‘In previous seasons we have dug in, got good results at the end of the season and got away from trouble.

‘‘I hope people don’t think that because we have done it before we can do it again without people standing up and fighting.’’

The uncertainty of waiting for a new manager had been put to the back of the players’ minds as they prepare for the visit of Fulham, claims Unsworth, who added: ‘‘We have to live in the present and work and get what we want. It won’t just happen.

‘‘If we don’t believe we can do it again there’s no point coming into work every day. We have to believe we can do it and we must come together as a team now more than we have ever been.

‘‘A few of the lads have said they are having sleepless nights, it’s a lot of pressure, but we are paid well to handle that and that is what we have to do.

‘‘Every game we now play until the end of the season is a huge, pressurised game and there is no getting away from that.

‘‘But it’s in our hands, if we win our games against the teams around us then we will stay up.’’

Everton’s run-in gives them hope, as Unsworth added: ‘‘We have to play Leicester, Derby, Bolton and Blackburn and, without a shadow of a doubt, those are the games that will save us.

‘‘If we win those games we will not have a problem.’’