It is almost four years ago to the day since a blunder against FC Porto in the Champions League marked the beginning of the end of Tim Howard's career at Manchester United. A last-minute gaffe handed Porto an equalising goal at Old Trafford and a place in the quarter-finals of a competition that the Portuguese club would go on to win under José Mourinho, but for Howard it precipitated a meteoric downfall as he became another failed successor to Peter Schmeichel.

A troubled second season at United followed and it was not long before Howard had become little more than a postscript in Sir Alex Ferguson's plans and, eventually, not even that.

Salvation arrived in the form of a move to Everton in the summer of 2006, however, and after impressing initially on loan at Goodison Park, the American was signed by David Moyes for £3 million in February last year.

Howard has not looked back since and he will hope to celebrate his 29th birthday today with victory over Fiorentina in the first leg of Everton's Uefa Cup round-of-16 tie at the Stadio Artemio Franchi tonight. Moyes feels that the United States goalkeeper has been one of the unsung heroes of Everton's season and hopes that he can add to his tally of 15 clean sheets in 34 games this campaign against a Fiorentina team going well in Serie A.

“Tim has been great for us this season,” Moyes, whose team go in search of an eighth successive win in Europe, said. “He would be the first to say that the defenders have played a big part, but he deserves a lot of credit for keeping so many clean sheets this season.”

Moyes will make a late decision on whether to start with Mikel Arteta, who has missed Everton's past two matches with a calf strain.

Fiorentina (possible; 4-3-3): S Frey - T Ujfalusi, A Gamberini, P Kroldrup, M Pasqual - R Montolivo, M Donadel, Z Kuzmanovic - M A Santana, C Vieri, P D Osvaldo.

Everton (possible; 4-1-4-1): T Howard - A Hibbert, J Yobo, P Jagielka, J Lescott - L Osman, P Neville, L Carsley, S Pienaar - T Cahill - Yakubu Ayegbeni.

Referee: P Allaerts (Belgium).

Television: Live on ITV4 from 7pm (kick-off 7.45pm).