Soccer:John O'Shea has promised Manchester United supporters there is no way his team-mates will let a two-goal lead slip in injury time against Everton again. United tackle the Toffeemen at Old Trafford tomorrow looking to take a significant stride forward in their attempts to claim a record 19th league title.

It is the first meeting between the two clubs since September, when Alex Ferguson’s men found themselves two goals clear at Goodison Park and seemingly certain to collect their first away win of the season. Instead, they were on the wrong end of a comeback, with Tim Cahill and Mikel Arteta grabbing the stoppage-time efforts that earned the Merseysiders a point.

O’Shea said today: “If we are 3-1 up with a couple of minutes to go tomorrow, I don’t think the same situation would occur. My clear memory of that game is that we should have been out of sight.

“We created so many chances but were sloppy in not finishing the game off. In the end, we got punished.”

In the end, United had to wait until the end of October to claim that long-awaited away win, at Stoke. They have still only gained five, which is a rather bizarre statistic and means that, if they do finish top, United will have done so with the fewest number of away wins since Liverpool needed only five in 1976-77.

It is quite possible they will also become the first team to win the title with less than 80 points since they accrued 79 during the 1998-99 treble-winning campaign. Yet O’Shea views that to be a measure of United’s consistency in a season when no one has dominated.

“You could say we are surprised at our position given the results early on,” said the Irishman. “But we weren’t losing games. We were going to tough places and coming away from matches really disappointed that we had not won quite comfortably.

“There wasn’t much tweaking needed to turn those draws into wins and our home form has been such a key factor for where we are in the league now.”