Everton boss Dave Moyes was delighted with 18 year-old Dan Gosling after their 1-0 victory over Middlesbrough.

Former Plymouth striker Gosling seized his big chance in style and ought to have added to the only goal of the game - Tim Cahill's toe-poked 50th minute strike which proved enough to heap more woe upon Boro.

Moyes said: "Dan was terrific and on another day he might have got himself a couple of goals. It is a big step coming into a Premier League side pushing for Europe so he deserves a pat on the back."

Moyes was also full of praise for the "mucking-in" mentality of his squad as they made light of another week without a recognised centre-forward with Cahill and Marouane Fellaini leading the line well.

Moyes added: "The boys are doing unbelievably with no strikers and with Tim and Fellaini working together sometimes up front and sometimes in the middle. They really caused a lot of problems today.

"It's terrific what the players are doing. If we get Victor (Anichebe) and Louis (Saha) back that'll be a start and if we get a couple of additions that will give ourselves a powerful strong squad for the rest of the season.

"Home form has let us down at times but I think we've started doing better. It's taken us a while to get settled but I think we're beginning to look more like ourselves from last year."