Players want to go extra mile

"Tim Howard was struggling last week with a virus he picked up in America and he did really well to get through the last two games and hasn't trained in that time.

"And Leon Osman did unbelievably well to play on Sunday. He had a fitness test before the game and came through it, then played and dislocated his thumb halfway through the game and put it back in himself.

"He was out on his feet, he carried on, he kept going and he got the equaliser. He summed up what Everton's all about to me. His desire and attitude on the day was phenomenal.

"The players want to play. Their attitude is first class, there is a togetherness. Maybe that's what has carried them to where they have got in the last few years. They want to go that extra mile to win."

Such qualities will be required this evening when Everton's Carling Cup campaign begins with a third round visit to Blackburn Rovers.

Unlike the Goodison outfit, Round has experience of winning the competition, having been part of the Middlesbrough set-up that triumphed against Bolton Wanderers in 2004.

Everton are hoping to go one better than last season, when they were thwarted in their semi-final against Chelsea, a run that was a catalyst for the rest of the campaign.

And Round believes the Carling Cup represents a genuine chance for Everton to lift the silverware that can elevate them to the required next level. "The Carling Cup is very important to the club," he says. "I've won it at a previous club, so I know what it means. We're taking it seriously.

"Any trophy at the moment is a major achievement. When you look at what the top clubs are spending to achieve success, for a club like Everton to win a trophy would be a major achievement. But it's certainly something that we're capable of doing.

"Winning silverware can act as a springboard. When you know you're a champion, as a player you see things in a different light.

"Many people would argue finishing high up the league is more important, and it's very important yes, but to win a trophy shows you can be a winner, and can push you on to the next level.

"We want to win and we'll put the strongest team out that we can, given the context of this stage in the season."

Skipper Phil Neville concurs. "This is a competition we want to do well in," he says. "The run last year in the Carling Cup bred confidence for the rest of the season in all competitions. We want to go one better last year.

"We got a bye to this stage, and the Carling Cup is the kind of competition where if you win the first game, you can almost smell the semi-finals. It's that close, the incentive is there for us.

"It's going to be a fantastic occasion at Blackburn. I was saying to the lads the other day that the first round we enter the Carling Cup, it's normally low key. But there will be six or seven thousand Evertonians behind that goal at Ewood Park, and that always makes for a tremendous atmosphere.

"It always seems to be a feisty encounter at Blackburn for some reason. We know it will be rough, but there are a lot of all-Premier League encounters in this round and a lot of Premier League teams are going to go out.

"That gives us even more opportunity to win this game and get where we want to be."

With a Goodison derby and the second leg of their UEFA Cup clash with Standard Liege to come in the next week, Everton are entering a critical period even at this formative stage of the season.

That they have been handed two difficult ties so early in the campaign has again led to some bemoaning the club's fortune in knockout competitions.

But Round reckons: "I've been told Everton have often had bad draws in the past, and I've picked up a sense of that already in my time here.

"But I don't really subscribe to that. If you are playing well enough, and you have an ambition to go and win it, then you have to play the big boys at some point.

"There is always that sense of fate playing a part, but you have to play two or maybe three big teams if you are want to win a trophy."