James Morrison warns of Steven Naismith threat

The midfielder has put his team-mates on alert for the threat of international team-mate and one-time Baggies target Steven Naismith ahead of tonight's Premier League trip to Goodison Park.

David Moyes' men boast a number of obvious threats in the form of predatory striker Nikica Jelavic, powerful midfielder Marouane Fellaini and dangerous wide man Steven Pienaar.

But Morrison has cautioned Albion not to come unstuck by underestimating Naismith, who was a long-time target for the Hawthorns club before choosing a move to Merseyside when he left crisis-ridden Rangers.

And the Baggies man is keen to earn bragging rights for the first Scotland get-together under new boss Gordon Strachan.

"He's a great professional," said Morrison. "He's had his injuries and he's come back.

"It's his first season in the Premier League and he's done really well. He's always a goal threat and off the pitch he's a nice guy.

"We speak a lot when we meet up with Scotland. It will be nice to meet up next time having taken three points or a point off them."

Morrison and Co will be looking to end a six-match winless run on Merseyside.

And the Baggies man knows what is possible, having played in a big win against the Toffees in 2010.

"They are a great team but we've won at Everton before so we know what it will take," he said. "When we won 4-1 there it was a great team performance.

"Everton are flying high again and they have been especially good at home this season.

"They play at a really high tempo, balls come into your box and they have good players like Fellaini, Baines and a lot of experience in Neville, Osman, Distin and Jagielka.

"They have a balance in their team and we need to be ready for that.

Tonight's game kicks off a potentially tricky spell for the Baggies, who host Tottenham on Sunday before returning to Merseyside to face Liverpool in a televised game eight days later.

But Morrison is hoping a run of difficult fixtures will bring out the best in the Baggies, who started the season with seven points from a possible nine against the same three opponents.

"Everyone said at the start of the season that we wouldn't get anything out of the opening three games and we did," said Morrison.

"We can take a lot of confidence from those games. We just need to get back into the state of mind we were in at the start of the season.

"Whether it's fatigue or something else we've been struggling with, we need to try and get back there.

"We've had the weekend off to recharge the batteries ahead of the games against Everton and Tottenham and we shouldn't have any fear going into those games.

"We're still eighth so let's look at that as a positive. People forget where we've come from."

Meanwhile, Morrison is already looking forward to linking up with Strachan and kicking off a new era for the Scotland team.

"It's an opportunity to learn more things from him and see where the team can go,"?Morrison said.