WHEN Everton broke the so-called big four’s stranglehold on the Champions League qualifying places two years ago they were rightly lauded for smashing through a supposed glass ceiling that prevented other teams from reaching an exclusive private members club.

In the current financial climate of football the fourth place finish in 2005 remains David Moyes’s finest hour.

Money issues also ensure that a preferable league placing remains a priority but when it comes to glory and the feel-good factor there’s nothing like winning some silverware.

Maintaining a tradition of winning trophies on a regular basis is crucial – especially when your neighbours are lifting cups on a regular basis – and Goodison skipper Phil Neville has admitted as much already this season.

After all, as great as it was for Everton, nobody ever went around the city in an open top bus for finishing fourth.

The Carling Cup remains in any of its guises, the only domestic trophy to have eluded Everton and as David Moyes’s squad embark on their latest attempt to break their duck tonight for a third round tie at Sheffield Wednesday, assistant manager Alan Irvine has spoken of the merits of trying to capture such a piece of silverware.

“I keep saying, I can’t understand that how people can devalue the competition,” revealed Irvine.

“I think the competition is a great chance for somebody to win a trophy.

“When you look back at recent years it’s starting to be the big four who are winning it so who’s devaluing it?

“The big four are winning the FA Cup but now they’re winning the Carling Cup too.”

Everton remain the most recent club from outside ‘the big four’ to lift the FA Cup having defeated Manchester United in the 1995 final – their last trophy to date – and it’s a fact that Irvine uses to illustrate just how hard it is for the other teams to win a domestic cup competition, let alone the Premier League.

He said: “People don’t realise. At the start of each year teams think ‘Our name’s on the cup’ but it just proves how hard it is to do it and it’s coming into the Carling Cup as well.

“It’s an opportunity for them to give a whole lot of other good players they’ve got a game.

“It’s not a case of them putting a team out that’s going to get run over.”

Everton go into tonight’s tie at Hillsborough on the back of several disappointing results since returning from the international break with Premier League defeats against Manchester United and Aston Villa coming either side of a 1-1 draw at home to Ukrainian unknowns Metalist Kharkiv in the UEFA Cup.

During this difficult period, many observers have pointed to a lack of creativity in the side due to the absence of Mikel Arteta.

The Basque playmaker strained his ankle ligaments last week and although he is out of tonight’s match, Everton hope to have him back for Middlesbrough’s visit to Goodison on Sunday.

Irvine admits that the side have missed the midfielder but points out that they are suffering from what is far from being a rare situation.

He said: “I think everyone’s reliant on their best players.

“Chelsea are complaining now that Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba are out just now – and rightly so – they’re two fantastic players.

“Mikel’s one of our top players but take the top players Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo out of Manchester United and everyone says they’re not the same.

“It applies no matter where you are.

“You obviously have certain key players and Mikel’s certainly one of them.

“Did we expect to miss him? Yes, anybody would.

“When you’re looking for that extra little bit of creativity then Mikel’s one of our most creative players.”

After matching champions Manchester United for long periods, suffering from an eagle-eyed referee’s decision to deny Andrew Johnson his first goal of the season and a potential 2-0 lead in Europe and playing well generally at Villa Park on Sunday but conceding some soft goals, Everton’s players could be forgiven for feeling a little sorry for themselves currently.

However, Irvine insists that spirits within the camp remain good and reveals that staff have been using the events of the past week to show the team where they have been going wrong.

He said: “We’ve done a couple of sessions with the players.

“This morning we did a session where we showed them aspects of good play but reasons why we haven’t created the chances we’d have liked over the past couple of games.

“We don’t think that the players are on their knees mentally, it’s obviously disappointing how the last few results have gone but I don’t think we’re at crisis point yet that’s for sure.

“We need to keep a clean sheet.

“Our foundation has been not giving goals away and that’s the platform for most teams to go on and be successful.

“Unfortunately we are conceding goals every game just now and that has to stop.”

Tonight’s tie is set to reunite Everton with a couple of former players who turned out under Moyes at Goodison Park.

Veteran utility man Steve Watson, now 33, spent five years at the club after being signed by Walter Smith from Aston Villa in 2000 and arrived at Hillsborough in the summer via West Brom but it will be the presence of former Everton wonderkid Francis Jeffers on the pitch that attracts most interest.

In the pre-Wayne Rooney era of the late 1990s, Jeffers, who has represented England at every level, was heralded as Everton’s brightest young talent.

Netting 18 goals in 37 starts, Jeffers caught the eye of Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who dubbed him his ‘fox in the box’ when he brought him to Highbury for £8million in 2001.

However, a combination of a loss of form and injuries saw Jeffers’s career go downhill fast despite netting in his only appearance for England in 2003 when he made his international debut alongside Rooney.

A spell back on loan at Everton under Moyes failed to halt the decline as Jeffers failed to find the net in 18 Premier League appearances and he has since endured unsuccessful spells at Charlton, Rangers and Blackburn before dropping out of top flight football this year, initially on loan at Ipswich before joining Wednesday in the summer.

Irvine said: “Franny is obviously a lad who had a fantastic start to his career.

“A lot of people say he went to Arsenal too early and then didn’t play enough football.

“That may be true, I don’t know. Maybe if Franny had stayed here he might not have kicked on as much as people had thought he would.

“I’d be worried about him if he gets a chance because I think he’s a really good finisher and I’m sure that Franny would love to get the opportunity to score against us.

“His movement is good and our defenders will have to make sure they don’t give him any opportunities.”