Everton FC News: Tony Hibbert’s pride at equalling Goodison Euro record

Dec 4 2009 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

Everton FC News: RECORD-EQUALLING Tony Hibbert has expressed his pride at moving alongside a pair of Goodison legends this week.

Hibbert made his 19th European outing for Everton in the 1-0 win at AEK Athens on Wednesday that secured progress to the knockout stages of the Europa League.

It meant the defender, who excelled as a makeshift centre-back, matched the club record for appearances in European competition held jointly by Colin Harvey and Brian Labone.

Injury permitting, Hibbert is almost certain to set a new landmark when Everton host BATE Borisov in the final group match in a fortnight.

And the 28-year-old, who made his European debut against Villarreal in 2005, said: “It does feel a great achievement to equal their record.

“They are legends, so to equal the 19 games of them shows what the club has done and how we have done in Europe in the last three or four years.

“It’s a nice record to have, and hopefully I can go on to beat it if I can avoid injury now. The squad that we have now and the way we are playing, we’ve shown in Europe we have the experience.

“I don’t see any reason why I can’t have the chance to make more appearances.”

On a soggy evening in Greece, Everton earned only their second win in 12 games with Hibbert superbly marshalling the defence to a first clean sheet in 13.

And the defender believes “confidence is booming” among David Moyes’s squad with the victory coming days after their encouraging display in Sunday’s derby defeat.

“The lads knew that the performance was much better against Liverpool and the only thing missing was the result,” said Hibbert. “We said after that game that we wanted to build on what we had done.

“It had given us confidence. The manager had said we just needed to be more sturdy at the back and start keeping some clean sheets, and that’s what we managed to do on Wednesday.

“The lads battled well and it showed what the display in the derby has done for us. The confidence is booming now.

“We hadn’t kept a clean sheet in 12 games, and we’d made a point of saying we wanted one. Obviously we got the injuries, but that shows how well we played at the back.”

Dan Gosling and Sylvain Distin were both substituted inside the opening 20 minutes on Wednesday after suffering hamstring problems.

The pair were assessed on Everton’s arrival back at Finch Farm yesterday with the medical staff hopeful of making an accurate diagnosis later today.

But both must be considered major doubts for Sunday’s Premier League visit of Tottenham Hotspur, with Moyes already without the suspended John Heitinga as well as long-term absentees Leon Osman, Phil Neville, Phil Jagielka, Victor Anichebe and James Vaughan.

Vaughan has a three-month loan spell at Derby County cut short because of a knee injury sustained shortly after moving to Pride Park in September.

The 21-year-old has since had successful surgery and Rams manager Nigel Clough is now hoping to resign the striker on loan in January.

Clough said: “We hope to get him down at some point for a training session with us, so he doesn’t come in cold in January.”