Nolan: “I’ve not found it easy at Goodison”

Kevin Nolan returns to the Irons line up today with a sigh of relief declaring: “I’m delighted to back. It’s been a long old few weeks, but the boys have been brilliant so I haven’t been moaning to the gaffer.

“Hopefully we can continue our form today. We’re five unbeaten and hopefully we can make it six today.

“We were hoping Everton wouldn’t have tightened up at the back. The last two seasons, I’ve not had an easy game here.

“It’s going to be tough, as it always is here. Their fans get right behind them so we’ve got to try and quieten them today.

“We certainly feel we can continue our form. We’ve got great depth in the squad now and that’s something we didn’t have last year.”

Surprisingly Carlton Cole starts alongside Andy Carroll with Mauro Zarate left on the bench where we also find the surprsing figure of Ricardo Vaz Te.

Both Chiekhou Kouyate and Alex Song joined the other expected absentees Stewart Downing and Dioafra Sakho although the good news was that Winston reid passed a fitness test.