Frank Lampard writes in today's Official Matchday Programme ahead of Everton's encounter against Southampton at Goodison Park.

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We know the importance of today’s game against Southampton to give us a chance to get back to winning ways at Goodison, earn three points and move up the Premier League table.

For our players, though, the objectives remain the same as every other time they pull on an Everton shirt: to show great work-ethic, passion and play with an intensity that ignites our supporters.

To represent this club is a huge privilege and with it comes a great responsibility. I’m a big believer that success can only be earned by how you work and behave every day. That is the attitude I demand from the players and it is something that has to remain consistent to get us the results we want.

I understood the challenges that lay ahead after our incredible night against Crystal Palace last May. Personally, for me, it felt like only the beginning. The battle against relegation was real and we have to understand the reasons that got us into that situation. Of course, it takes time to progress and nobody gives you anything in football. Everything has to be earned.

We have to find every way possible to improve on and off the pitch to bring the Club to where we all want it to be. That means taking on every challenge and working even harder in difficult moments.

I will be the first person to give everything in my role as Everton manager. It’s the only way I have known throughout my playing and managerial career.

We saw how strong we were last season when the Club comes together in the way that we did. We, as staff and players, have to focus on only our personal responsibilities in our jobs every day. Once we do that, I know you as fans will be with us on the pitch.

There is a collective effort from everyone at the Club to improve and get better. I have a strong working relationship each day at Finch Farm with our CEO, Denise, and Director of Football, Kevin, along with the support of the Owner and Board. Together with the players, staff and fans, we are eager for success for Everton.

Our players can take a lot of encouragement from our previous two away matches against top quality teams in Manchester City and Manchester United.

In both games, we displayed character, togetherness and discipline mixed with attacking quality. We got our rewards with a deserved point against the reigning Premier League champions and, while the result did not go our way in the FA Cup at Old Trafford last Friday, there was a lot to like about the performance against a strong, in-form United side.

We showed resilience to respond to going behind early on and, like against City, we were brave on the ball, organised and dangerous going forward, with the speed of our attacks and decision-making in our passing much sharper. We can get better at that but we got into a lot of dangerous areas which gives us a platform to build on.

The challenge now is to take confidence from those displays and treat every game with the same spirit and focus, starting with Southampton this afternoon.

We welcome Nathan Jones and the staff and players of Southampton.

Nathan is still new to his role but showed what a quality manager he is with the fantastic job he did at Luton Town. Southampton will be just as eager as us to secure three points and they showed the talent and threat they have in their team with victory away to Crystal Palace in the FA Cup last weekend and their Carabao Cup win over Manchester City on Wednesday night.

There is no such thing as an easy game in the Premier League. You have to give everything in every game and that’s something we know is the absolute minimum required from an Everton player: to stand up and play for this club.

Our fans respect when their team shows bravery and spirit. You saw how our superb travelling support at Old Trafford applauded the players’ efforts after the Cup tie last week. If we match the qualities on show against Manchester United, we hope to have 40,000 Evertonians clapping us off the park at the end of the game today.

Enjoy the match,

Frank