Barry Horne says Everton FC's David Moyes deserves FA Cup Final victory at Wembley

May 27 2009 Liverpool Daily Post

EVEN though we are still eagerly awaiting the FA Cup final this weekend, congratulations are more than due to everyone at Everton FC.

Putting to bed the oft-quoted statistic of how long it had been since we last won at Craven Cottage – although very welcome – was of secondary importance in the grand scheme of things.

It was of far greater significance that Everton remained in good form during the run-in to Saturday’s Wembley date, that the players came through the game with Fulham unscathed, as seems to be the case although there were minor concerns about Phil Neville and Steven Pienaar in the immediate aftermath, that they won their final league game of the season and crucially secured a prestigious fifth place finish in the Premier League.

That in itself represents a remarkable achievement bearing in mind the turmoil surrounding the club during the close season 12 months ago, a situation that must have contributed to the poor start that the team made and, of course, taking into account the horrible run of injuries that manager David Moyes has had to cope with throughout the whole of the campaign.

Now, though, all thoughts turn to Wembley and ever since Everton booked their place by beating Manchester United in the semi-final, members of the 1995 team have, as you would expect, been besieged by requests for interviews and comments ahead of the weekend’s showpiece occasion.

Like most of the lads from that side I have been happy to share my memories of the day and equally pleased to give my thoughts about the current squad of players because I’ve been able to talk about them in glowing terms. What they have done over the course of the last 10 months deserves nothing but praise.

It’s also fair to say that many commentators have tried to draw a comparison between the two games in the sense that Everton will be underdogs this time as we were 14 years ago, but the situation is very different in a way that is positive for both Moyes’ players and the supporters.