Nathan Patterson 'confidence' that kickstarted Everton career as Steve Clarke reveals what he told Frank Lampard

There was a time - not all that long ago - when Nathan Patterson ’s move to Everton was shaping up as potential misstep of monumental proportions.

Signed by a terminally beleaguered boss in Rafa Benitez who was just days away from being sacked and chased out of Goodison, Patterson found himself left on the fringes of Frank Lampard’s big rebuild to such an extent he was in danger of becoming the forgotten £11million man. Not a kick of first team action until March. Then hauled off after 45 minutes of his debut in the FA Cup against Boreham Wood.

Patterson had swapped a seat on the bench at Ibrox for one in the stand on Merseyside. It was only when he turned up for duty with the national side for friendlies against Poland and Austria that Patterson was pulled out of this downward spiral - and showed Lampard what he had been missing all along.

Fast forward six months and Patterson is proving such a huge hit in the Premier League that Everton ’s fans have even given him his own song. And he’ll be nailed on as Steve Clarke’s first choice right back for three crunch Nations League games in the space of six days.

But the Scotland boss declines to take any credit for his part in Patterson’s meteoric rise. When asked if he has taken any kind of personal satisfaction for the dramatic turnaround in Patterson’s fortune, Clarke almost blushed as he said: “Not really. It is more for Nathan to take that satisfaction.

“He did not sulk, he did not lose faith in himself. He kept running away, working away. Even when he was at Rangers he was probably playing as many times for Scotland as he was for Rangers at that particular time because of the situation he found himself in with James Tavernier, the Rangers captain.

“He found it