Everton to their credit got past two but Chelsea – as in last season’s Carling Cup semi-final – proved a hurdle too far.

In many ways Chelsea are the antithesis of Everton. A team not far from Goodison Park mock them saying: “You’ve ain’t got no history” and for all their recent successes bankrolled by billionaire owner Roman Abramovich, only with Saturday’s win have they joined Everton on five FA Cup wins – and they’ve only won a third of the Goodison outfit’s league titles.

However their current financial clout ensures they can attract a world class coach like Hiddink to come in for a couple of months, win world football’s oldest competition and then walk out while Moyes has had to build patiently, gradually and methodically for over seven years.

It sounds unfair and is unfair but life and football isn’t always fair.

Everton had to go into their most important game for 14 years without Phil Jagielka, Mikel Arteta or Ayegbeni Yakubu.

Chelsea have got a far more expensive squad but how would they have got on without John Terry, Frank Lampard or Didier Drogba?

Yet Moyes and Everton have never complained about the sometimes cruel hand that fate has dealt them.

After a third LMA Manager of the Year award but still no team silverware, some have questioned whether Moyes has done all he can at Everton.

But the reality is that the real job for Moyes at Goodison has only just begun.

After several years of painstaking groundwork, he and his side now have to take the step from being contenders to real achievers.

It will be hard, it always has been and it always will, but like Moyes said after losing the final, Everton’s dream is now in “touching distance”.

They now just need to stretch themselves to get their hands around a cup.