BEFORE his side’s FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United, manager David Moyes declared: “This Everton team will win a trophy soon.”

Were these the words of a manager who wanted to curb expectation levels ahead of a game against the Premier League champions followed by a Wembley final against Chelsea or Arsenal – or a belief of a man who has moulded a side of dedicated professionals determined to make their mark in an era when the game is dominated by a few wealthy institutions?

Surely Moyes would say the latter and having had their hearts broken at Wembley on Saturday, increasing their record of most FA Cup finals lost to eight on what was an unlucky 13th appearance in English football’s showpiece game, Evertonians will be hoping and praying the same.

Defeat against Chelsea ensures that the ‘noughties’ become only the second full decade of football in Everton’s history that the club has failed to win a single trophy– the other being the 1950s when they spent three (1951-54) of only four seasons in total outside the top flight since the Football League began.

However, it would be grossly unfair and inaccurate to compare what have been years of steady progress and revival under Moyes to those dark ages half a century ago.

After the glory days of Howard Kendall’s first spell in charge in the 1980s, the 1990s were a period of great decline for Everton.

A short-lived reprieve of Joe Royle’s ‘Dogs of War’ having their day in beating Manchester United in the 1995 FA Cup Final was just a temporary sticking plaster that covered up the cracks on what was a crumbling once-great footballing institution.

Fellow Glaswegian Walter Smith – who on the same day Everton fell short against Chelsea at Wembley was enjoying Scottish Cup success with Rangers to complete a domestic double north of the border – did his best to halt the decline but it is only since the day Moyes walked through the doors at Goodison Park in March 2002 and coined the term ‘The People’s Club’ that the team started to move again on an upwards spiral.

One top-half finish in the previous decade has now been replaced by sixth, fifth and fifth placings in the last three seasons and the current Everton team can now be rightly regarded as the club’s best since the heady days of their last title success 22 years ago.

But both they as a team and Moyes as a manager still need to win a trophy to secure their legacy.