EVERTON manager David Moyes hailed the greatest day of his managerial career as his side booked an FA Cup final place against Chelsea and in doing so ended Manchester United’s hopes and of a historic clean sweep of all five competitions they have entered this season.

Yesterday’s semi-final at Wembley ended goalless after extra-time but Everton triumphed 4-2 in the resultant penalty shoot-out to record Moyes’ second success against United since arriving at Goodison Park seven years ago.

He said: “This is my best day as a manager. I said before that this was the biggest game I’ve been involved in, partly because it was Wembley, partly because it was Manchester United, partly because Everton hadn’t been there for so long.

“I felt it was a big day but in the end the team did their job and the supporters did their job. It was only a semi-final and we’ve not won anything yet but it was an important moment for the football club and for the players.

“We’ve had three top-six finishes in the last four years and with a bit of luck there will be another one this year. We’re a club which is preparing for success.”

Moyes added: “As a club, reaching a major final was the next step in our progression. It’s more important as we as a football club rather than David Moyes. I thought we needed European football a couple of years ago and hopefully we’re getting a bit better at that and we needed good runs in cups which we’ve not had in the past.

“This was preparation for the final, we’ve been here and done it and we’ll prepare ourselves for what we need to do in a month’s time.”

Everton recovered from Tim Cahill missing their first kick in the shoot out and Moyes was delighted with the mental toughness his players showed. Leighton Baines put them in front while their other shoot-out scorers were captain Phil Neville against his former club, James Vaughan, playing his first senior game for five months, and Phil Jagielka, who netted the decisive strike a season after missing a crucial kick in the shoot-out defeat to Fiorentina in the UEFA Cup.

Moyes said: “I don’t think he (Jagielka) was madly keen on taking one. He’s taken one in training and scored so it stuck in my mind so good on him. I sent James Vaughan up to take one who hasn’t played for five months and Phil Jagielka who missed one against Fiorentina – there wasn’t many more coming up for them. When Tim missed the first one we were worried because Manchester United have been in those kind of situations so many times and they won the Champions League in a shoot-out. I asked who wanted to take them and a few heads nodded but there were a lot of tired players out there. It took great courage for James Vaughan to go up, he probably only had a dozen kicks in the whole game.”

He added: “I think as a man Tim Howard deserves the plaudits – he’s worked really hard at his game.

“Phil Neville too, playing against his old team, I think they’ll take a little bit of pleasure there but their Everton players now and they work really hard for the club and they’re top professionals.”