AS Everton manager and owner of horse Desert Cry, David Moyes wants at least one winner at Cheltenham this year.

But the Scot knows all too well that success at lower-league opposition in the FA Cup is anything but a racing certainty.

His Goodison outfit begin on the road to Wembley on Monday night with their third round visit to League Two promotion hopefuls Cheltenham Town.

The presence of live television cameras at the intimate 7,000-capacity Whaddon Road stadium suggests the air will be laced with the scent of a possible giantkilling in the first-ever meeting between the clubs.

Indeed, while the magic of the FA Cup is something that resonates with Moyes, the problem for the Everton manager is that he has too often been on the receiving end of the fairytale.

None more so than in his very first game in the competition since moving to Goodison, a 2-1 third-round defeat in 2003 at a Shrewsbury Town side that were ultimately relegated from the Football League later that season.

And Moyes acknowledges the desperation not to write another unwanted chapter of FA Cup history remains a driving force, while admitting his team’s run to the final in 2009 is now rarely mentioned.

“Shrewsbury was one of the lowest times I have had,” he says. “I know exactly what it is like to go through and you don’t want to be put in that situation again.

“I remember the feeling was of real despondency afterwards. We had been knocked out and we had made the news for all the wrong reasons. You mention to the players beforehand about past experiences and you warn them.

“It reminds you of the fear that you don't want to have again. But I think nobody has asked me about the great run we had en route to the final (in 2009), the great teams we had to beat to get there.”

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.

“The teams always raise their games, whereas it can be harder for the teams who are favourites to do that.”

Cheltenham dropped out of the automatic promotion places in League Two with a 1-0 defeat at Oxford United on New Year’s Day, having seen their scheduled home match against Bristol Rovers called off four days earlier due to a waterlogged pitch.