It's been a while since Everton fought out a 1-0 win, home or away. Our only previous success this season, away to Bolton, was lucky to say the least, and we've been pretty dire since.
However, building on the performance against Chelsea, the 11 Everton men who stepped out in Birmingham on Saturday did us all proud.
James Beattie is actually starting to look like a half decent player, and hopefully the goals will come. Van der Meyde looked good in his first league game for the club, and as his fitness improved he'll no doubt become more dangerous.
Most importantly though, a midfield four of Van der Meyde, Cahill, Davies and Arteta, not players known for their touch tackling, tracked back and worked as hard as they could.
There was a time in the Premiership when having a decent striker was everything. If you had Cole or Shearer (or both) in your team, all you did was knock the ball up to them, and they'd turn, score and celebrate.
Now, with defenders being taken more seriously than they ever were (transfer fees demonstrate this), strikers are more limited. Hardly anyone scores 20 goals a season any more, and modern games are won and lost in midfield. Martin Jol sees this, that's why he has 9 central midfield player in his Spurs squad. Maybe a tad much, but you can see his point.
More importantly, the Everton midfield on Saturday realised this, and players like Davies worked hard to be at both ends of the pitch. On the same day, Middlesbrough's midfield dominated Manchester United to an embarrassing degree, showing how Alex Ferguson is one of the growing number of managers (add in David O'Leary and Raphael Benitez) who just don't understand modern Premiership football.
Whatever you think of David Moyes, you should be glad he does.