Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard has broken a club record held by Neville Southall, pledging his future at Goodison Park.

Southall is considered Everton's greatest goalkeeper, and at his peak the Welshman was rated among the best in the world. But Howard, 29, has now completed his first 100 games for the Goodison Park club and has conceded only 99 goals, which betters Southall's record at that stage of his career.

Now Howard wants to stay at Everton "for a long time", but accepts he will has some way to go to reach Southall's 750-game club appearance record, and told EvertonTV: "Neville is a legend, and the reason he is a legend is because he did it consistently at the top level over a long period of time."

He added: "I have got a long way to go, I know that. But I hope that I can stay consistent, stay here for a long time and do it with this club.

"A hundred games is a fantastic milestone at any club. The ability to play consistently over the last few years and get to 100 games is a marker for me. The record part? That's icing on the cake.

"It just shows what I have always believed, if you can work hard and be consistent over a long period of time things like that will come."

Howard reached his milestone as Everton made it three wins on the trot against West Ham and moved up to seventh in the table.

He said: "We got an unbelievable result at West Ham, it was a smash and grab job really.

"At 1-0 with seven minutes left you could not see where it was going to come from and then, bang, all of a sudden the flood gates opened. I'm really pleased for Louis Saha, who scored two of them, and us as a team.

"He is a fantastic striker. His pedigree and his CV speak for themselves. He is good with both feet, tough and he is strong in the air. The fact he's getting goals in awesome for us."