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Improving away form vital, says Everton forward Naismith

Football - Leeds United v Everton - Pre Season Friendly - Elland Road - 1/8/15 Steven Naismith of Everton in action with Tom Adeyemi of Leeds United Mandatory Credit: Action Images / John Clifton

(Reuters) - Everton forward Steven Naismith believes improved away displays are the key to the Toffees enjoying a successful Premier League campaign this season. Everton lost 10 and drew four times away from home last season as they finished 11th, their lowest position since 2005-06. Having drawn 2-2 at home to Watford in their opening fixture last weekend, Everton are at Southampton on Saturday where they have yet to win since the Saints returned to the top flight in 2012. "They (Southampton) are a force now," the 28-year-old Naismith told the club's website (www.evertonfc.com). "This season they have obviously got European football to contend with as well, which will be interesting for them. "But we are just concentrating on ourselves. We want to be a bit more solid away from home than we were last season and obviously pick up more points. "Looking at our results in the previous few seasons, we definitely need to improve our results down there and there's no time like the present to do that. We are definitely up for it." Southampton boasted the second best defensive record in the league last year as they finished seventh in manager Ronald Koeman's first season in charge. They opened their domestic season with a 2-2 draw at Newcastle United on Sunday after beating Vitesse Arnhem 5-0 on aggregate in Europa League qualifiers and have since signed Spanish defensive midfielder Oriol Romeu from champions Chelsea. "It's never an easy place to go and they've shown already in their European qualifying games that they have picked up where they left off last season," Naismith said. "They seem to have a good structure, they bring through some good talent and they've made a lot of good signings as well," he added. (Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru. Editing by Patrick Johnston)