NIGEL MARTYN: Everton's Louis Saha shows his courage as well as class

ONCE again Louis Saha woke up on Sunday morning to King Louis headlines. Without being disrespectful, just six months ago he was getting labelled with a very different tag.The old 'injury prone' description was being trotted out and there were suggestions from some that he wasn't the type of player to put his body on the line.So it should be pointed out that Saha didn't just score a superbly taken goal at West Ham, he played for almost an hour despite carrying a calf injury.That, for me, was the most heartening aspect of what was a very big win for the Blues.Saha has always had the quality, but at West Ham he also showed his character and his courage.It doesn't hurt that at Everton he is surrounded by a group of players who are more than prepared to go into the trenches.You don't want players to have to turn out if they are carrying an injury, because the likelihood is they won't play to their fullest potential.But if circumstances dictate that they have to, and circumstances at Everton are pretty unusual at the moment, then it helps to have a core of players' whose attitude rubs off on others in the squad.There's no doubt Sunday's was a very important win for Everton - especially with another international break following.Before the game we were three points off the chasing pack of upwardly mobile teams, but equally were only three points off the teams battling relegation.Now we are comfortably placed in mid-table again to make a move towards the top eight.If you look at the teams immediately ahead of us in the Premier League table - Fulham, Burnley, Stoke and then Sunderland - they are all the kind of clubs Everton would expect to finish ahead of, and the clubs we have consistently been finishing higher than in recent seasons.Now we have got within striking distance, it's important we build on that.There is the sight of cavalry emerging on the horizon from Baz Rathbone's sick bay and when some of the injured players are back we really should be able to kick on.Sunday, hopefully, could be seen as a turning point in the season.

Source: Liverpool_Echo