DO YOU think that perhaps David Moyes was about to say that Everton’s performance at the JJB stadium was disappointing, before describing it as below par instead?

Because apart from perhaps a cameo by Paul Gascoigne or David Ginola, that was all that was required to complete Monday night’s homage to the Walter Smith era.

There’s no two ways about it, that was just an abomination of a performance, and even if Tim Cahill had managed to score at the end to take a completely undeserved point, there would have been no glossing over just how badly Everton played.

That’s what has happened in recent weeks; the euphoria of late goals have allowed us to turn half a blind eye to the ropy football in the hope that the good results would breed confidence and the players would in turn eventually hit their stride and start playing as we know most of them can.

A struggling Wigan team without Amr Zaki, their star striker, certainly looked like the ideal opponents, and for the opening 10 or 15 minutes it seemed as if the Blues would indeed have too much class for them.

But that only made the rest of the match even more unbearable, as Moyes’s team were outplayed and, crucially, outfought by a side that started the night in the bottom three.

Few players came out of the game with any credit, but the midfield was again the worst shambles.

To accommodate Marouane Fellaini, our most dangerous and competitive player, Tim Cahill, was shunted out to the right wing where he unsurprisingly struggled to make any impact, and on the other flank was Mikel Arteta, a player who is now almost unrecognisable from the one that Evertonians lovingly christened “the best little Spaniard we know.”