Friday 14 May 2004, 11:17
Everton's Assistant Manager Alan Irvine believes that the game at Manchester City is one that the Blues' can win.
David Moyes' men have only secured maximum points on the road once this season, but Irvine is confident that they can make it two wins out of 19.
Should Everton fail to win, then it will be the first time since the 1971-72 season that they have failed to record more than one victory away from home in a campaign.
"I would certainly like to think that it's a game that we're more than capable of winning," he told evertonfc.com.
"We've felt that about a lot of the games recently though. But unfortunately we haven't either taken our chances or defended well enough when we've had to.
"I would hope that we would finish the season on a high because the last few weeks have been disappointing.
"The fans deserve us to win the last game of the season. They've been absolutely tremendous. I can't speak highly enough of them.
"I know that other managers, coaches and players talk about their fans and how good they are, but Evertonians are absolutely magnificent.
"To think that they've had to endure a disappointing season for them and for us, they've stuck by us really well. The support both home and away has been sensational.
"We would love to have them driving back home with smiles on their faces - just as much as we would like to have smiles on our own faces."
Irvine believes that a big factor in the Blues' record away from home has been confidence.
He thinks that the players have got into the habit of losing or drawing on the road and they have found it difficult to arrest the slide.
"Confidence plays a big factor in any of the games, whether you're home or away," he continued.
"You look at our home form and by and large, it's been fairly good this year. Obviously, as a result of that, people feel confident when we've got a game at Goodison.
"When you win it becomes a habit, people feel that they can win the next game - and so it goes on.
"But when you lose a game, it knocks your confidence a little bit and if it happens again and again, people go into games in a poor state of mind.
"There's no doubt that the margins are so small in Premiership football, that a little bit of confidence makes a huge difference."
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