Everton 3 Leicester 2: Two successive wins have put a seasonal glow on Everton cheeks. It is as well that David Moyes held his nerve and focus.

A year ago the club lay fourth, a fortnight ago 17th; now they are 11th, only six points off fourth again.

This was a victory that owed much to the manager's grip. With the rest of the club indulging in the nostalgia of the 125th anniversary of Everton's first game, Moyes looked no further back than last season, when he regularly used Wayne Rooney to inject zest, if not terror and goals, as a substitute. After a run of starts and declining performances this season, coinciding with off-pitch unrest, his prodigious talent has been polished up in the dug-out.

The policy worked at Portsmouth the week before, when he came on to give Everton their first away win of the season, and it worked on Saturday. For the second match running Everton won from behind. This time Rooney's was the equaliser and another maverick substitute, Duncan Ferguson, set up the winner.

Central defence is more solid for David Unsworth's move there from full-back. He is said to be unhappy with the terms of a new contract but Moyes has proved himself in shooting trouble and, in any case, when Unsworth left before, his wife brought him home in no time.

Everton had taken a clumsy lead with an own-goal induced by Lee Carsley's bustle, only to find themselves level at the end of a half they had dominated. Les Ferdinand hammered in a free-kick for his 16th goal in 17 games against Everton, a post-war club record of concession. When James Scowcroft put Leicester ahead, through feeble marking, Rooney could be withheld no longer.

On the right, rather than in the hole, and doing only simple things well at first, he brought a new dimension of frisson as well as vitality. In 11 minutes he blasted in Kevin Campbell's lay-back, his first goal at Goodison since April. Then it was Ferguson's turn, back in the frame for the first time since October and his fall-out with Moyes. His first touch was a nod to Tomasz Radzinski and Everton had won back-to-back victories for the first time since early April.

"Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't," said Moyes, playing down intuitive nous. "We weren't quite as clean as last season but we're putting in hard-to-beat performances. I thought the crowd would give Kevin Kilbane a standing ovation; he ran a hundred miles."

Of Rooney he said: "You can see from his body language he's enjoying things more. We've tried to ease the pressure of expectation by instilling good habits." The brilliance will out.

Everton, thanks finally to Nigel Martyn's flying save to deny Muzzy Izzet, could not go to Old Trafford on St Stephen's Day in much better heart.