DAVID MOYES had already admitted to having an eye on the FA Cup – and just about everyone inside Ewood Park wished they were watching something else last night.

A dismal goalless draw at Blackburn Rovers was not the ideal preparation for the season-defining moment that lies on the horizon this weekend.

But another clean sheet and another away point helped maintain Everton’s momentum ahead of Sunday’s quarter-final meeting with Middlesbrough.

And, joy of joys, nobody got injured.

Moyes, understandably, accepted the Cup tie would impact on his team selection for last night’s match.

The changes, though, made little difference to the one overriding aspect of this current Everton team; they are incredibly difficult to beat.

Moyes’s men have now lost just one of their last 16 games and, even more impressively, have conceded a miserly nine goals in 19 Barclays Premier League outings.

And with Middlesbrough simultaneously being thrashed by Tottenham Hotspur last night, the portents augur well for this Sunday.

Moyes, of course, also has designs on catching fifth-placed Arsenal, meaning this failure to win has again stretched the gap to the Gunners to four points although ground has been made on Aston Villa in fourth.

Everton were aiming to gain a measure of revenge last night after Blackburn followed an opening-day victory at Goodison by dumping them out of the Carling Cup at Ewood Park the following month.

How long ago that seems now. Moyes’s men have since transformed their campaign while Paul Ince has been jettisoned by a struggling Rovers, replaced by Sam Allardyce.