Moyes denies contract talks to blame for loss

Everton manager David Moyes has denied that uncertainty about his future had anything to do with the club’s 3-0 loss to Wigan in the FA Cup.

Everton were knocked out by three goals in four first-half minutes in a performance that drew plenty of criticism from fans in the ground.

And with Moyes’ contract set to run out at the end of the season, the 49-year-old has stated that the loss was a one-off match.

“What can be said is people will always draw comparisons,” Moyes said. “But anybody who watched that game will know it had nothing to with that (his future).

“It was just a poor performance by myself and the Everton team. It wasn’t to do with anything else.

“I actually got a feeling that the supporters realised it was just a bad day. We just didn’t play well. It wasn’t as if it was something tactically we did.

“Throughout you saw misplaced passes, bad control, not winning a race, a challenge or a header in the box. It was a performance I’ve not seen from my team for quite a while.”

Moyes admits that he is concerned with some of the performances his team have put in recently as they chase a European place, with only two wins from their past seven league games.

“I thought there were bits against Reading last week I wasn’t so sure about. I’ve seen signs about things I wasn’t so sure about,” Moyes added.

“Obviously I’m not going to publicise them and say what they are. And I’m not saying they’re all of the things which came to fruition against Wigan.

“We didn’t play well enough and they did. We gave away goals quickly so we nearly lost the game very quickly in a bad period.”

However, Moyes believes his team can recover from the defeat, as they did after their semi-final defeat to Liverpool in last season’s FA Cup.

“What we’ve tended to do in these situations is bounce back quite well,” he said. “We lost a big game at Wembley last year and I would expect the same from the players and the same from me.

“I said before we’re still fighting on two fronts: the FA Cup and the league, and that’s why I would never say which one is more important than the other. Now the important thing is we try to win as many league games as we can.”