DAVID MOYES has discovered the hard way there are only two ways of being remembered in the FA Cup – either win the competition or be involved in a giantkilling act.

And while not quite yet achieving the former, the Everton manager has all-too-much experience of the latter during his decade-long tenure at Goodison.

Three times his side have been eliminated by lower-league opposition in the FA Cup.

Last season’s defeat to npower Championship side Reading was more frustrating than shocking, although the same couldn’t be said for the home loss to League One’s Oldham Athletic in 2008.

But it’s the stunning 2003 exit at Shrewsbury Town, a team relegated from the Football League barely five months later, which remains the absolute nadir, regularly cited by Moyes as the lowest point of his reign.

That defeat, along with elimination to Oldham, were at the third round stage, where Everton find themselves again this afternoon with the visit of Blue Square Bet Premier side Tamworth.

And Moyes acknowledges the desperation not to again create FA Cup history for the wrong reasons is still a driving force, while admitting his team’s run to the 2009 final is now rarely mentioned.

“It reminds you of the fear that you don't want to have again,” says the Goodison manager. “But I think nobody has asked me about the great run we had en route to the final, the great teams we had to beat to get there.

“We won at Macclesfield in the third round that year. Ossie scored late on and we were comfortable. But Macclesfield raised their game, and undoubtedly Tamworth will raise the standard of their play and relish the opportunity.

“Having side that, I would rather be playing Tamworth at home than Chelsea. We prepare for the game in the same fashion, go into it the same way, give the players their warnings but obviously expect them to go out and perform.

“We have to do the right things. It doesn't matter who you are playing against, we have to earn the right to play and we will go and give them the same respect as anyone.

“The attitude of the players has to be correct on the day and if we do that then hopefully the gulf in the league we play in and the league they play in will show up.

“If anyone is turning up thinking they will roll over and make it easy then they have not seen it right.”

Moyes understands the flip side of the situation, having regularly punched above his weight in the competition while manager of Preston North End.

“I have been there before and you always remember it,” he says. “I have been a manager at Preston when we have been 2-0 up against Arsenal, who had Vieira, Petit, Overmars and Henry and Bergkamp, a minute before half-time (Preston ultimately lost 4-2). I’ve been there and know what it is like. 

“I have been too Goodison as manager as Preston and I've been to Chelsea as manager of Preston so I know what that is like.