Everton may have lost the FA Cup to Chelsea but Greg O’Keeffe, watched as the fans proved real winners

TELL ME MA to keep the champagne on ice, went the Everton fans’ enthusiastic anthem for their club's courageous FA Cup run.

The celebratory bubbly may have to remain in the chiller cabinet for the time being, but the thousands of supporters who flooded Wembley over the weekend proved their vintage is beyond dispute.

They had begged, borrowed and broken the bank to get to the flagship footballing event and despite the unfavourable scoreline, undoubtedly won the contest of the supporters.

From the moment they started to arrive in the capital on Friday, the Evertonians savoured every opportunity to soak up the atmosphere and the glorious sunshine.

Fans flocked to Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus and the West End of London – draping every blank monument they could with banners and flags.

City workers hurrying home on Friday evening reacted with a mixture of bemusement and curiosity as their commute was accompanied by a soundtrack of chants and songs about David Moyes and his team.

David Taylor, 28, from Lowton, near Warrington and a buyer for Pilkington Glass in St Helens, travelled down by train from Lime Street at 8am on Saturday morning with his father Graham, 62.

The Gwladys Street season ticket-holder spent the afternoon with friends enjoying a beer in a bar near Wembley stadium before making his way to the concourse.

He said: “I was too nervous to relax before the game so I was surprisingly sober when the time came to go in. We actually got into the ground just in time to hear them play Abide with Me which was quite a powerful moment.

“As I was looking around, all you could see were Evertonians. It made me feel very proud of the club regardless of the result. When Saha’s goal went in so early, I couldn’t quite believe it. I was hugging strangers and going wild, but then the nerves cranked up even more because we’d scored so early.

“After that it was a case of hanging on but we just couldn’t quite do it. After the game we went back to the same bar for the depressing post-mortem and then saw all the Chelsea fans walking past the window singing which was our cue to get the tube back to Euston.

“It was a long train journey back with only thoughts of what might have been to keep us going, but we’ll be back.”

Other supporters made the journey without tickets as a result of the Football Association’s 25,000 allocation for Everton.

Michael English, 25, a Liverpool university languages graduate from West Derby, travelled on a mini-bus with his sister and her boyfriend.

He was hoping to get a last-minute ticket, but eventually had to settle for watching the game in the Silverspoons pub near Wembley.