Re: AN EVERTON VIEW.......
Stand up and be counted...
Phil Neville has warned Everton are entering a defining week in the Club's season.
The Toffees are currently occupying joint fourth spot in the Premier League table. But in the next week must face two of their closest rivals for European qualification, with a trip to Manchester City on Monday night followed by a home encounter with Portsmouth on Sunday.
With 12 games left to play, the Blues' skipper is under no illusion as to the relevance of these two matches to Everton's ambitions of keeping a grip on fourth place.
The challenge begins with City at Eastlands on Monday.
"It’s a massive game," he told evertonTV exclusively.
"Both clubs are desperate to finish in that fourth position. Both clubs have got to this stage of the season showing consistently that we’ve been up there all season so this week is a defining point of our season where we play Portsmouth and Man City and if we come out of this week with good results then there might be a bit of daylight opened up between the teams. We go to City and both teams need the three points, a draw’s probably not good enough for either team, so we have to win.
"If we have any aspirations to finish fourth then draws aren’t good enough, defeats certainly aren’t good enough, we need to win games and we need to show the consistency that we have been showing because over the first three quarters of the season we’ve been fantastic. Now we’re at the business end of the season, this is where you sort the men out from the boys.