Everton FC News: Team spirit remains strong at Everton despite winless run says John Heitinga

Nov 2 2009 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

Everton FC News: JOHN HEITINGA believes the spirit remains strong among the Everton squad despite their winless run being extended at the weekend.

David Moyes’s side let slip a half-time lead when they were held 1-1 at Goodison by Aston Villa on Saturday.

It halted a run of three successive defeats but means Everton have gone six games without a victory, a sequence that includes three successive home draws.

But Heitinga is convinced the squad’s unshakeable faith in each other has not been altered by the indifferent form.

“The last few games were bad for us and we didn’t get the results we wanted, especially the Tottenham defeat in the Carling Cup as that was our quickest route to silverware,” he said.

“You could see in the opening minutes of the game against Villa that we were maybe a little nervous to go forward, but then we got a grip of the game and played quite well in the second part of the first half.

“The team spirit hasn’t been affected. It was good against Villa. We all want to play well for the team and for the fans.

“But it’s not good that we are dropping points at home. We do have a lot of players missing and we hope that there’ll be a few coming back for next week.”

Diniyar Bilyaletdinov put Everton ahead on the stroke of half-time, only for John Carew to equalise for the visitors less than a minute into the second half.

Bilyaletdinov was then sent off in the closing moments for a foul on Stiliyan Petrov, with Villa also reduced to 10 men shortly afterwards when Carlos Cuellar was dismissed for a second bookable offence.

And Heitinga added: “It was a tough game, a typical Premier League game with lots of confrontations. We’re sad because we didn’t win and I think we needed it.

“We should have won. We conceded straight after the break, and that was not what we needed. It’s important that we played with a good spirit and it’s important we keep on going.”

Heitinga produced one of his most effective displays since arriving from Atletico Madrid on transfer deadline day in September.

The Dutchman partnered Jack Rodwell in a defensive midfield role having played at centre-back and right-back in recent weeks.

And he said: “I enjoyed playing in midfield. I spoke with the coach on Friday and he said I’d be playing there and what was expected, and I feel as though I did well.

“I thought that the way me and Jack played together helped us get a bit of control on the game in the first half.

“This was my kind of game. I love playing in the Premier League. You can make tough tackles. I never complain about it, if both players are going at it 100%, you can hit each other but as long as it is fair then I don’t mind.”

Heitinga, though, must sit out Thursday’s visit of Benfica as he is ineligible for European competition until the New Year.

“It’s frustrating to watch the Europa League games, particularly what happened against Benfica the other week,” he said. “We were missing a lot of players.”