So there will be no trip to Wembley to boost this most miserable of Everton seasons but should we really have expected anything else from a group of players who continue to head into a never-ending string of cul-de-sacs each time you hope they’ve turned a corner?
When the Blues next resume action in what will be the penultimate month of the campaign, Frank Lampard’s task will be painfully clear – mere Premier League survival.
Everton’s last visit to Selhurst Park in December also came on the back of a dramatic late victory at Goodison Park, on that occasion coming from behind to defeat Arsenal 2-1, but three months on and now under a new manager, their chronically under-achieving squad seemed to have learned very little at all.
