Sides outside the top four just don’t have that luxury anymore and you could almost see it in Phil Neville’s face at the end. He must have a feeling that, at 32, his best chance to lift the FA Cup might have gone.

It won’t stifle his determination to put it right next year but challenging the elite only gets more and more difficult. Increased revenue streams for the Champions League won’t help that scenario either.

So what you end up with is a sad inevitability that’s far too prominent in English football these days.

When Didier Drogba scored his equaliser, for example, even the most optimistic Everton fan must have feared the worst. Chelsea at this stage had done the hard bit by reacting to an early setback and knocking the confidence and momentum their opponent s had built up.

From then on it was simply a case of who was the better footballing side and sadly there was only going to be one winner then.

David Moyes brought on Lars Jacobsen, James Vaughan and Dan Gosling and no disrespect to them but Chelsea responded by sending on Michael Ballack. A Champions League finalist and a regular in the latter stages on the international stage.

Chelsea didn’t even have the sense of anti-climax you sometimes see from a side that has failed in its quest to land the really big prizes of league and European Cup.

The desire to give Guus Hiddink an ideal send-off gave them a real incentive and lifted the occasion above that of a simple Cup final. They wanted to win it for the manager.

And all that conspired against Everton. Who, when they look back at the teams they have seen off on the way to breaking Moyes’s Cup final duck, can take great credit and heart for next season.

Unfortunately, that was all they were destined to finish Saturday with – but they shouldn’t beat themselves up for that.

Mark Lawrenson was taking NICK SMITH