Although still vehemently against the semi-finals being held at Wembley, Moyes accepts his players will have benefited from the experience of playing at the imposing 90,000-seater venue.

“We have been there and seen it,” he says. “I still wouldn’t want the semi-finals there. I think it’s hard to play a semi-final where you get 30,000 of your supporters there but then a final where there are only 25,000. I can’t see how that works.

“The idea of getting to a final is to get your supporters there but we’re taking less so the whole thing is not correct. They want you to bring all your money and people to the semi-final but come the final they don’t. I don’t think that’s right.

“We came away from the semi feeling we didn’t play as well as we could have done. We could have played better but we did enough. We didn’t concede a goal and gave us an opportunity to get to penalty kicks.

“This now is an opportunity for them to go out and not feel overawed by the occasion. We got better as the game went on. We froze a bit in the first half but it could have been a case in the first half but hopefully that won’t happen on Saturday.”

As for a teamtalk ahead of today’s game, Moyes is confident his players will not need any encouraging.

“I have things in mind, but most things have already been said,” says the Everton manager. “I don’t think the players need to be inspired or motivated because the game inspires you and you have to be motivated by playing in the Cup final.

“If they play the way they have been over the past few weeks then I will be happy.”

And should Everton win, there will undoubtedly be more than a few cold ones being downed tonight.