David Unsworth on how Everton FC boss David Moyes changed his football outlook nine years ago

NINE years have passed, but David Unsworth remembers the first time he met David Moyes like it was yesterday.

The defender wasn’t just meeting his new gaffer, but the custodian of the club he had supported since childhood.

And, he insists, from that first meeting on a chilly morning at Everton’s former Bellefield training ground, he was never the same.

Unsworth, now a coach himself at Preston North End, is a fervent Moyes disciple – and says he knew from that initial session that the Toffees had landed themselves a priceless leader.

Fate has aligned some neat symmetry for Moyes’s ninth anniversary. Tomorrow’s opponents Fulham were his first, and Unsworth recalls that winning start vividly.

“He came in on a Friday before the Fulham game and as we were walking over to the training pitch the whole session had been set up and planned out in front of us,” says the popular ex-player.

“David knew a lot about Fulham because they’d recently been promoted and he managed Preston against them in the Championship.

“He knew about their players in such detail, and was so prepared. That session was fantastic. We came away with a spring in our step.

“He had a strict game plan and we had a brilliant session and afterwards in the changing room we were all saying ‘Wow, this guy knows his stuff.’

“We didn’t know a lot about him but he made a quick impression.”

The man known as Rhino to team-mates and fans scored the first goal of Moyes’ reign 30 seconds into that game, and believes the Scot’s tutelage helped him improve rapidly.

“The game took care of itself after that,” he says. “I remember him coming onto the pitch and the crowd almost took the roof off the stadium. The club was obviously ready for a change of manager, and he came to give them something to shout about.

“I became more of an attacking left-back under him. I got forward more often because he loved his full-backs to attack and it was something he always wanted me to do.

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