24. Tim Howard - 09/10

Confidence is Sky High

Tim Howard who kept his third consecutive home League clean sheet in last nights win against Sunderland reckons confidence has not been higher this season. He hopes the Blues carry on the good form we are in of late against the Pie Eaters on Saturday. Just keep it clean Tim, keep it cleanand the points are ours !!

Tim says: "Our confidence is probably the highest it has been for a while. You look around at the injured players and wonder when are they coming back? Now these guys are training again and are helping to lighten the load. Everyone is buzzing so it is no coincidence we are starting to see clean sheets and goals. It gives everyone a lift from the fans to everyone at the training ground and it is going well.

I think going into the game it was important to give a better performance, we owed ourselves that. We knew if we could put the result right and put the performance right then things would take care of themselves. We got three points so we have managed to get ourselves up the table a little bit and now we can go into Saturday's trip to Wigan with our chests out, which is important." (28/01/10)

Best in His Class

At the final whistle in Sunday's draw with Spurs there was only one player Moyesy was running to first, that was his keeper who he rates the best in the business. Tim Howard's last second penalty save earned the Blues a vital point against high flying Spurs, and Moyesy would not swap his keeper for anyone else in the top flight.

Moyesy says: "At this moment I would not swap him for any other keeper in the country. He is alert, lively and very agile. He should be saving penalties because he has all those qualities, but you also need a bit of luck. He is a very good goalkeeper. Having said that I didn’t think it was a penalty in the first place." (08/12/09)

Benfica Awaits

Most Blues fans expected Tim Howard to see red after he pushed the big Wolves glute in the last few minutes of Everton's draw on Saturday. Thankfully Tim did not recieve his marching orders, and he knows he was a lucky teddy. Now along with the estimated 5,000 plus travelling Evertonians Tim is focused on the Stadium of Light in Portugal on Thursday evening.

Tim says: ""I thought it would probably be yellow. When you do something stupid like that then you leave it up to someone else to make the decision and thankfully he had a level head and didn't send me off.

It's a big week for us but I think we are ready for it. We enjoy travelling in Europe and hopefully that will kick us off for what is a big couple of weeks." (19/10/09)

Keeping It Clean is The Key

Tim Howard's back trouble from the early part of the season have now gone as he recorded his fourth clean sheet in a row, with Saturdays 1-0 win at Pompey. Tim admits he had to work hard for the clean sheet, and he feels like we all do, good things once again are coming Everton's way this season.

Tim says: "I think that was the hardest I've had to work for a clean sheet this season. It was a tough game, not just for myself but all of us because we were under a lot of pressure. We tried to keep ourselves up and keep the ball but they made it difficult for us. They smothered us and put pressure on us, got the ball forward and had success at doing that. That made it tough for us."

If they'd have got the first goal the game would have taken a whole different shape, so that part was good. As for the other save? (Ben Tel Haim) I didn't really know too much of what I was doing. As a goalkeeper you always look to get your position right, get in the way and then react from there. At that point, once it was on top of me, all I had to use was my shoulder.

We feel at this Club that our performances have to be right. It's all well and good to talk about getting a result, but how do you go about getting a result? You do that by consistently putting in good performances and, if you do that, I'm almost certain you will start to see good results, and that's what we've done.

I think the best teams keep an air-tight defence and always know that they're going to nick a goal. We feel that from set pieces we're very dangerous, we've got good delivery, we've got guys that attack the ball, the way Louis Saha's playing at the moment - we always give ourselves a chance. That's what the manager preaches to us - keep it tight at the back, keep our lines high and eventually we'll get a goal." (28/09/09)

Praise For Howard

Tim saved 3 pens to earn him the MVP (Most Valued Player) and Everton a 4-3 win on pens against MLS Allstars. He also excelled in the game which ended 1-1.

Moyesy says: "He proved himself to be one of the national heroes as far as footballers go over here. He should get a lot of plaudits because he saved the penalties really well and he played well in the game as well."

Skipper Phil Neville says: "He won us the semi-final last year by saving penalties and he's done it again. Consistently he's been one of the best keepers in the Premiership over the last two or three seasons. We're just so lucky to have him in our nets and he's a good guy too."

Tim says: "I think a shootout for a goalkeeper always involves a lot a luck. We always try to make sure that we make strong decisions, and we leave the rest up to luck. I was just able to get a piece of that ball. It was awesome, being MVP was the icing on the cake. I need to put in good performances and this was my first performance of the pre-season so it was important I got off on the right foot. We have been working hard and Chris Woods has been putting us through our paces. I'm here to make saves so the more saves I make, the happier I am." (30/07/09)

Our Time Will Come

Tim Howard has had such a busy Summer, that he has only had time now to reflect on what could have been in this season's FA Cup Final. The day after the Final Tim flew off to America to join up with his International team mates to contest World Cup Qualifiers, and then the Confederations Cup in South Africa. It was a double Final heartache for Tim as his American side went down 3-2 in the Final to Brazil in that tournament. He is hopeful however that this season he will enjoy success with the Blues, hear, hear my good man, lets fuggin' hope so.

Tim says: "I figure that if I can keep playing in these finals, sooner or later the law of averages says that I’m going to win one. It had been a great year but at this moment I am hurting and I am physically tired. When I sank back into a chair, switched my phone off and started to unwind, then I started to think about losing to
Chelsea.

What happened at Wembley left a bad taste in the mouth, even though we did not have a divine right to win. We had every chance in the world but unfortunately we just couldn’t take it. Quite honestly I haven’t dissected the fine details of the game because I flew off the day after Wembley.

I never read any reports and subsequently I’ve played seven matches on three different continents. I just hope we can get after it again next season. It will be another big year for us, both as players and as a club. We have got Europe to look forward to again. We want to maintain our position in the table and push on if we can.

We really want to be right on the money. The manager won’t have it any other way. Nor will the rest of the lads. And I’m sure we can be a force again." (13/07/09)