It could only be the Everton Way, couldn’t it?  Granted, the defeat at home to Manchester United in a FA Cup tie ended our hopes of silverware for yet another season (I’m already discounting the Liverpool Senior Cup!) but with ourselves lying still in fourth place in the Premiership, it’s not all doom and gloom.  Not yet, anyway.  You see, that’s the Everton Way – glass half full one day, half empty the next.  It’s a mathematical possibility that Everton’s Premiership status, for next season, is confirmed next Saturday evening – subject to favourable scorelines of course!  Has it ever been any other way with Evertonians?  Somehow, I doubt it…

Anyway, the FA Cup’s now done and dusted for yet another year.  Poor old David Moyes; I felt for him on Saturday night.  He’s a competitive arl fecker, something we’ve seen on many occasions since he came to Everton and epitomised by those oft-seen touchline outbursts of sheer bloody joy when a goal is scored.  We wished for similar last Saturday evening but it was not to be.

Hindsight, as ever, can be a great thing – we went into the cup-tie hoping for the breaks, the pitch supposedly a great leveller and believing that United might be caught off guard with one eye on their game in Milan this Wednesday.  We ended up being well and truly spanked by a United team who strolled past us, barely needing to step beyond second gear.  Painful viewing for Blues.

The difference in class can be hard to take at times but that’s the reality.  Ferguson can leave a player who cost £19M on the bench alongside other players who cost millions.  How much did our team cost?  Amidst all the ire aimed at Wayne Rooney by the Goodison “Faithful”, can I ask did any of you spare a thought for the manager, not armed with ANY of the 27M pieces of silver that’ve already been received (hah!) from United from the sale of the Judas One?  He had just sixteen players from which to pick a team to face Manchester United. That number includes kids.

Losing Tim Cahill through suspension was inevitable at some point or other this season; it was unfortunate to occur at this time, when the cracks are as wide as they’ve been all season.  The one plus, I suppose, is his continuing availability for the more important Premiership matches.  We can ill-afford to lose any more players.  Take note upon your return, Mr. Beattie!

With that in mind, I think Moyes, to a degree, had conceded the cup tie before a ball was kicked at Goodison.  It ended up being one of those games you were simply glad to see the back of, forget it and get over it; onto the next one – where three vital points are our goal.

Eleven games remain, each one a cup final.  No doubt the pendulum shall swing both for us and against us before our last kick of a ball on May 14.  Can we preserve our lead over those hunting us down for fourth place?  With a threadbare squad, it may prove one challenge too far for the team this season – hopefully not. 

We’ve enjoyed some wonderful moments this term, well in excess of anything dreamt of before the season started last August and though there’s a logic in playing down expectations and hopes for a Champions League place.  The fact that we’re fantastically placed only serves to move the goalposts: to lose out on European football now would be criminal.

I’ve written out the names of those left in the first team squad at Everton and, apart from praying for Divine Intervention to carry us home, I’m looking towards some of the elder statesmen in the team (if I may call them that) to secure our European place.  Is it cruel to label them Dad’s Army?  Can the Home Guard secure some foreign leave next autumn?

The backbone of our team is an ageing one – from Martyn in goal, through Stubbs and Weir, past Carsley and stopping with our own super-sub this season, Mr Ferguson.  If Everton are to be rewarded with European football next term, I feel we’ll be requiring eleven big games from all of the above.  Can it be achieved?  Can Everton continue to defy the pundits who have written the team off on a weekly basis since that opening Sunday when Arsenal ripped us apart?

The experience of those mentioned above just might prove vital, as the stakes get higher.  Nigel Martyn gets better and better with age – sorry Dicky Wright, but the return of Martyn as team Number One was necessary if we were to harbour any notion of European football next season.  Time to cash in the chips on Mr Wright this summer, I reckon.  Stubbs and Weir have served us well this season – looks as though time’s about to be called on Weir’s Everton career.  Going out on a high would be nice…

A five-point cushion ahead of those lovable Reds who budget for annual inclusion in the Champions League is never enough to feel comfortable.  We’re all too long in the tooth and know that, if there’s any chance of grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory, then Everton may duly oblige!  For those with long memories, recall that day in late February back in 1986 when we swept Liverpool aside at Anfield to move further ahead of them at the top of the League.  One hand on the Championship, we were to be reeled in with a week to go. We do not want a repeat this season.

If we could manage five wins from the last eleven games then the onus is on Liverpool to win at least seven of their remaining fixtures.  Middlesbrough would need a minimum eight victories from their remaining schedule.  Bolton?  Well, they’d probably require nine wins or more – unlikely with their appetite for FA Cup glory.  Are those clubs good enough to do that, go on a long unbeaten run of winning games at this key time of year?  Personally, I’d like to think not!

The thing is though — can we guarantee five wins of our own, as we appear to be running on empty at present.  I hate looking at fixtures at this time of year, trying to gauge where we’ll see those points incoming.  It never pans out like that.  Five wins from the last eleven – almost sounds too good to be true.  The scent is in the nostrils....

Come on Dad’s Army!  Or who do we think we are kiddin’…