The up and coming matches against Slovakia and Ukraine see three Toffee’s players involved with Baines’ team-mates Joleon Lescott and Phil Jagielka also in the squad but Baines is the only uncapped player. “I was delighted to be in the initial 30 and obviously even more so to be in the actual squad," he said, “It is a great honour to be selected for your country and I'm looking forward to the experience.”

David Moyes’ men have been given backing by a Goodison legend for their FA Cup semi-final clash with North West rivals Manchester United at Wembley in April. Neville Southall thinks that the reigning World Champions are beatable, possibly enen more so given their recent run of poor results. "Bolton Wanderers point at bottom club West Brom edged them further away from danger but saw boss Gary Megson experience the good and bad sides of management.  are a hard team to beat and in a one-off game we shouldn't be scared of anybody," he said, "they have got enough to get a result."

No doubt Moyes himself will be planning hard no matter what as he will not want to suffer the backlash of the hairdryer.