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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Roberto Martinez used to pit their managerial wits against each other on a computer game – now they are about to do the same thing in real life and the stakes could not be higher.

The Norwegian’s Cardiff City side travel to face the Spaniard’s Everton desperate for some points as they fight for their Premier League lives. The Toffees, meanwhile, according to their boss anyway, still have designs on a perhaps unlikely Champions League spot.

The Merseysiders have lost just once at home all season, a shock 1-0 Boxing Day defeat to Sunderland, whilst the Bluebirds have only won once on the road, a victory over Fulham at Craven Cottage back in September.

But Solskjaer and his men received a big confidence boost last weekend after completing the double over the Cottagers with a 3-1 win in the Welsh capital. It was a result which drew them level on points with 17th-placed West Brom and, with nine games left, gave the Bluebirds renewed hope they can upset the odds and stay up.

The trip to Goodison Park also will see the meeting of at least two thirds of a long-standing friendship. Back during their playing days at Manchester United, Solskjaer and teammate Jordi Cruyff were close to Martinez, who was then plying his trade as a player at nearby Wigan.

The trio would meet up regularly to talk football and to try to outdo each other on ‘Championship Manager.’ Even then the three men knew when their playing careers did come to an end, they wanted to continue working in the game. Solskjaer admits now they are fond memories for him.

Martinez, however, has upset the idyllic image by, in what could be seen as a thinly-veiled dig at his old pal, suggesting that changing managers mid-season might not have been the best course of action for Cardiff.

Solskjaer, though, insists there is nothing personal in Martinez’s comments and that the Spaniard remains a tactician he greatly admires. Even if he did used to beat him in their old ‘video-gaming’ days.

“Roberto never mentioned me. It was not a dig at Cardiff,” said Solskjaer of those comments.

“He’s a good friend. I’ve known him a long time. Me, him and Jordi Cruyff were good friends in Manchester. I could see him going on to be a manager even then, 100 per cent. The three of us actually. There was not much else than football talk. The three of us had more manager and coach feelings in us then than being players at the time.

“We were the type of people who played Championship Manager rather than Fifa where you actually had to play. I was always the best on that actually. That’s always been me and that’s always been Roberto. Jordi is now technical director in Tel Aviv and I think you could see that even back then.

“I do admire a manager like Roberto, who has stuck to his beliefs and just gone through with them. You look at Everton and you see a good team which has taken on board what Roberto wants. Of course, I can praise them, talk about all their good players, but we have to make it hard for them.

“We have to earn the right by running more than them, by wanting it more than them. I look at my lads now and they really want to stay in this division. There’s a determination there.”

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One part of Martinez’s career Solskjaer will be keen to emulate is the Spaniard’s knack of managing to pull former club Wigan back from the brink of relegation. In both 2011 and 2012 the Latics looked dead and buried until Martinez somehow guided his side to a string of vital, if unlikely, results to keep them in the Premier League.

Of course, Martinez’s and Wigan’s luck finally ran out last season as the Latics dropped down into the Championship and the manager moved on to Everton to replace Manchester United-bound David Moyes.

“I’m not going to follow Roberto’s lead from last season,” quipped Solskjaer.

“But if we can get on the same kind of run as Wigan had before we know we will stay in the Premier League, but we know that will take everything we’ve got. We have to give everything, but the reward for that is what we all crave.”

In the run-up to the trip to Goodison Park, one might imagine the atmosphere within the Bluebirds camp has heartily improved.

The win over Fulham was only Solskjaer’s second league victory since taking charge and how he would love to follow that up now with his first points on the road.

Last weekend’s victory was built on a vital brace of goals from Cardiff captain Steven Caulker and rounded off with an own goal from the Cottagers’ Sascha Riether. A good afternoon’s work indeed and one you might imagine Solskjaer sees as a potential turning point in his side’s season.

Instead, the Norwegian points a couple of results further back to pinpoint a real watershed moment for his men, the 4-0 drubbing at home at the hands of Hull.

It was a dark day for the club and its supporters, Cardiff’s most comprehensive defeat on their own patch in nearly 14 years and a game which seemed to dispel what hope and optimism most had of the Bluebirds staying up.

But Solskjaer insists he and his men learned something that day, they may have lost at Tottenham in their next outing 1-0, but the performance itself at White Hart Lane was a giant step forward on the showing against Hull.

The Fulham win might well have put a spring in everyone’s step, but the mauling by the Tigers might just prove definitive.

“Hull was a kick in the face,” added Solskjaer.

“After it I had to say something. In one way we just had to buck up our ideas at both ends of the field. That was where we were lacking. Maybe you need to break your nose to score a goal. You could see the difference against Fulham.

“There was much more of a fighting spirit. The third goal, for example, you’ve got Fraizer (Campbell), Kenwyne (Jones) and Jordon (Mutch) all fighting to head the ball. Then you get the luck, it hits a defender and goes in.

“The pressure is still on us, but the result against Fulham does do something to the whole club, to the players, to everyone around. It gives you a bit more belief.

“It’s a reward for the hard work we’ve put in. The win gives you a boost, but we know we have a two-month test ahead of character, will and team spirit. No-one is relaxing because of it.

“We hope, we believe, we have turned a corner in terms of performances and that we are still in with a shout.”