Moyes is Mr Motivator

David Moyes' no-frills, no-nonsense approach is at least proving attractive with the Everton players.

Victory at Southampton on Saturday was their fourth win in seven games since the Scot took charge and almost certainly ensured Premiership survival before Arsenal's victory over Ipswich guaranteed it yesterday.

The Goodison club are confidently eyeing a future paved with InterToto silverware and a yellow brick road into Europe after Steve Watson's gilt-edged 41st-minute finish supplied a solitary moment of class in a mind-numbing affair at St Mary's.

Stalwart defender David Unsworth said: 'It's amazing we are 11th. We are enjoying things here at the moment, there is an air of confidence.

'The manager has come in and given us a new lease of life. The first step on the ladder was to avoid relegation. The next rung is to do well in the InterToto.'

Moyes will still be required to blend the best talent his club have with whatever Everton's precarious finances can be stretched to afford. But he has talent coming through in the shape of 16-year-old substitute Wayne Rooney, who will become the youngest player to appear in the Premiership if he gets a start in the next 19 days, and striker Nick Chadwick, 19, who requires an X-ray today after damaging an ankle.

And it was revealed yesterday that Moyes is to throw Leicester City's £2million-rated goalkeeper Ian Walker a Premiership lifeline after casting a careful eye over Steve Simonsen and Paul Gerrard and finding them wanting.