PHIL JAGIELKA fired the penalty that sent Everton into the FA Cup final then admitted: “I didn’t even want to take one.”

Jagielka netted the decisive spot-kick to earn David Moyes’s side a shoot-out victory against Manchester United in their semi-final at Wembley after the game ended goalless after extra time.

Everton will now return to Wembley on May 30 to take on Chelsea as they attempt to win a sixth FA Cup and end a 14-year wait for a trophy.

Moyes’s men won 4-2 on penalties, Tim Howard saving from Dimitar Berbatov and Rio Ferdinand after Tim Cahill had missed Everton’s first spot-kick.

Jagielka had missed from the spot during the UEFA Cup defeat on penalties against Fiorentina last season.

And the centre-back admitted: “I wasn’t exactly at the head of the queue saying ‘pick me, pick me’, and it’s fair to say that I didn’t want to take one, but I’d been practicing them in the week and didn’t miss one.

“So the staff said I should take it. When our third penalty went in I was joking with Joleon Lescott on the halfway line that it would be nice if I got the winner, and we were giggling like mad – but I guess that was just nerves.

“When it came to my turn, I was a hell of a long way from the halfway line to the penalty spot, and by then I didn’t even know what was happening.

“I don’t remember how it went in – I had to watch it again afterwards.

“But it did, and after missing against Fiorentina, this is an incredible feeling.”

Jagielka was at the centre of controversy during normal time when he tangled with Danny Welbeck in the penalty area.

Referee Mike Riley incensed United manager Sir Alex Ferguson by waving play on, and Jagielka accepts that Everton were a little fortunate to escape conceding a spot-kick during the match.

“I touched him,” he said.

“I don’t know exactly how much it caused him to go down, but maybe I was a little lucky. What can I say, except that I’ll take that luck.”

Howard was ecstatic at helping end the quintuple dreams of his former club and send Everton into their first major final since defeating United in the 1995 FA Cup final.