United game perfect to kickstart season

BLUES NEED LIFT-OFF IN CHASE FOR EUROPEAN PLACES

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Iliman Ndiaye celebrates scoring against Bournemouth at the Hill Dickinson Stadium earlier this month - but Everton fell to defeat and (inset below) Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall wheels away after hitting the winner against Manchester United at Old Trafford in December

(TONY MCARDLE/EVERTON FC & ALEZ LIVSEY/GETTY IMAGES)

T is hard to sum up just how important Everton's win at Manchester United was three months ago.

The Blues have made a habit of winning away from home since David Moyes' return to the dugout - eleven times a sold out away end has stayed beyond the final whistle to celebrate three points. There have been happy road trips since Old Trafford, at Bournemouth, at Nottingham Forest, at Aston Villa, at Fulham.

But the win down the East Lancs was different for the players, for Moyes and for those supporters. It was a different-type of victory, one achieved at a ground where the club had struggled for decades and that it came in the face of such astonishing adversity made it even more significant for all involved. It was the catalyst for the belief that Everton's darkest days were behind them.