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Everton and Moyes running out of options
By James Illingworth
Sympathy for the plight of their rivals may be kept to an absolute minimum by the red and blue halves of Liverpool but even the staunchest of Kopites should spare a thought for David Moyes.
Having seen his side claim partial revenge for their 2009 FA Cup final defeat by knocking Chelsea out on penalties last month, Moyes could not prevent first division Reading ending Everton’s cup run in the fifth round on Tuesday.
Forced to operate a sell-before-you-buy policy and with the club failing to attract investment, the 47-year-old Scot is beginning to cut an increasingly frustrated figure.
“We let the supporters down tonight, we didn’t play well enough and we got what we deserved,” Moyes told Everton’s website. “We didn’t have enough, enough craft, enough guile to break them down. I thought we did try to take the initiative but we weren’t good enough.”
Everton’s heart deserving of final reward
There is not much romantic about Everton’s current lineup, especially now they are operating without injured Spaniard Mikel Arteta, but the unceasingly honest boys in blue certainly injected some desperately-needed colour to this season’s FA Cup with their penalty-shootout win over Manchester United on Sunday.
Yes it was an awful semi-final, with neither team really testing the opposing goalkeeper, but at least Everton, and their fans, took it seriously.
