|
" It is about being in the hat for the next round, that is what they keep saying but Carlisle were outstanding today and they did give us a fright. They hit the bar in the second-half, 3-1 totally flattered us I think. Our performance wasn't up to what it has been in the last five or six games and the boss (David Moyes) told us that.
" But at the end of the day we are in the draw for the next round and looking back at last season's unbelievable cup run, the first game against Macclesfield proved a little bit of a banana skin for us and it was a similar type of game today.
" Personally I feel fine, I feel fit, I feel really fresh and it is just a case now of training hard again this week and kicking on from here. I always say to the young lads that they are so lucky, you look at our bench today and it was full of kids. They are at a club where their manager is not scared to give young talent a go and when they get an opportunity you need to take it and the three lads did today.
" (James) Vaughan scored, Seamus Coleman ignited us really when he came on and Kieran Agard won the penalty. So it is three plus points for us and there are more young players where they came from as well that are waiting for the opportunity. As an experienced player it is great when you have got young fearless players coming into the team and they just go out there and play as if they are on the playground.
" Getting back to Wembley is the aim, I think before the game I was warming up and we saw the footage of the Manchester United game, we saw the footage of the Chelsea game. Straight away I thought that we need a bit of this this year. It was truly inspiring last year was the cup run and it galvanised the whole club and we want another cup run this year.
" We feel as if we have been playing well for the last three or four weeks really, the last four of five games we have been playing well. We need to really kick on now, I think there is no excuse, there is a little bit of a light at the end of the tunnel with the injured players coming back and we just need to start winning games. We have got a big couple of months coming up and if we come out of these couple of months up the table we can really attack the last half of the season. "
Meanwhile Australian attacking midfielder Tim Cahill commented to the official Everton website on getting his 50th goal for the Toffees during the game :
" I didn't know so I wasn't thinking about it before the game. All I was thinking about was getting the win. This is such a big competition for us and we did so well last year. To get through this round is great and we are in the draw, so it's exciting. It does mean a lot, thinking of it now, fifty goals for a Club like this is something I will treasure for the rest of my life. Thinking about it now, I am pretty proud of it.
" It was important (to get through), it was such a hard game to play and the gaffer (David Moyes) wasn't happy with the first half. But this is what you get when you play against teams like this; they were well organised with good players - I've played against (Graham) Kavanagh and (Ian) Harte in the past - and they were well drilled. Sometimes it doesn't go for you but today it did. We've been playing some great football and not getting the results and today to play averagely and get the result - it's about time. "