Oviedo excited about Everton future after injury woes

Only a few players have survived at the club through the past two summers, so it will be interesting to see how we line up against Arbroath in the League Cup on Thursday and for the Premiership opener against St Johnstone on Sunday.

The Red Lichties will be no walkovers – but they will be a piece of cake after being given a chasing by EPL big guns Everton at the weekend.

“It was a good competitive game against Hearts”.

On Sunday, Oviedo made his return by playing 26 minutes in the Toffees’ 3-1 victory over Scottish side Hearts. It was good for everyone to play and we played very well.

“It was nice to get the goal”.

“You can play against big guys body-wise in your career like Colin Nish at Dumbarton and Cowdenbeath”, said the full-back.

“You can get a wee bit star-struck at times but you’ve obviously got to focus on the game and play the way you play”.

Most Hearts fans couldn’t even name our strongest starting XI at present, so there is an element of mystery about us and that could help us catch opponents by surprise.

“Incredibly Lukaku is only 22, which is only a few years older than me”.

As a right-back, Paterson was particularly thrilled to get a pitch-level insight into the skills of Republic of Ireland defender Seamus Coleman. You thrive against players like that. Coleman was playing right-back for them and I was watching the way he plays. For me, the most important thing is the future now.

It won’t be quite as brutal against Arbroath but Paterson knows it’ll be tricky.

The team they send out will not be as strong as it could be, so it may prove to be a good time to face them. It has to be our aim after the way we applied ourselves past year.

It will take time to establish whether we are going to be a team battling to stay in the league or whether we will be challenging for Europe. “Thankfully this game is at Tynecastle”.

Although they are now hit with a raft of injury problems, Paterson is hopeful the Tynecastle side will be able to kick-off the league season with a bang and set the tone for the campaign, just as they did 12 months ago in defeating Rangers at Ibrox.