VALENTINE’S weekend, a time to rekindle the passion to one who is near and dear to your heart.

Everton may have won more FA Cup matches than any other club but have endured a strained relationship with football’s longest-running competition in recent years.

However, there are now signs that the lovers’ tiff could soon be ending and there just might be some kissing and making up as the Goodison Park outfit marched into the last eight for the first time in manager David Moyes’s seven-year round and for their supporters it was oh so sweet.

Don’t be fooled though, this tie was far from being a lovey-dovey affair.

There were some serious matters that needed to be put right – not the kind of trifling affairs that a mere bunch of roses could remedy.

Everton had handed Aston Villa a couple of presents when they met at Goodison in a Premier League game a couple of months ago, conceding in the first minute, gifting them a second goal with something as rare as a red scarf on the Gwladys Street – a Phil Jagielka blooper – and then failing to concentrate in the final 30 seconds as Ashley Young raced through to secure an unlikely 3-2 win.

In many ways the grudge had lingered far longer than a mere 10 weeks though.

Five days shy of nine years earlier, Villa had triumphed 2-1 in an FA Cup quarter-final at Goodison Park when Benito Carbone poked home one of the easiest goals of his career to win the tie after Everton keeper Thomas Myhre’s wrist – as soft as a Valentine’s chocolate squashed on the couch – failed to hold a seemingly routine effort by Paul Merson.

In contrast, Tim Howard, who played through the pain barrier after returning injured from international duty with the USA in midweek, produced a superb tip around the post to deny John Carew a goal that would have made the score 2-2.

Everton have had to wait even longer to put one over on their previous nemesis Martin O’Neill.

Somehow, in 11 earlier visits to Goodison as a player with Nottingham Forest and Norwich City and then as a manager with Leicester and Villa, the Ulsterman had managed to avoid defeat.

Also, a big monkey Evertonians will be delighted to have got off their back is the ‘After the Lord Mayor’s Show’ affect that saw them crash out to a Second Division West Ham side in 1991 after they last knocked neighbours Liverpool out of the FA Cup.