Manchester United 3 Everton 1: Blues battle but are beaten

Everton went out of the FA Cup last night despite a battling performance as they eventually went down 3-1 to Manchester United at Old Trafford.

There was a little bit of hard luck too for Everton as Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s equaliser was ruled out for offside before United’s Marcus Rashford went on to seal the victory late into extra-time.

This was a considerably improved effort from the Toffees’ after the debacle against Brighton at Goodison Park on Tuesday evening.

That’s the positive from last night’s game. The negative of course is that this was another defeat, the sixth in the past eight matches, and it leaves the Blues’ season effectively over, for another year.

Everton did recover well from going behind very early to Antony’s strike and they got a foothold in the match before Conor Coady scored to level fifteen minutes in.

United were playing the better football and looked more threatening but the visitors were making a match of it.

Calvert-Lewin looked more a danger than has has for a while since his return from his latest injury problem and he linked up well with Demarai Gray playing off him.

He and the vocal 10,000 odd Toffees’ fans who had made the journey up to Manchester from Merseyside, thought the England international had scored when he found the back of the net in the second half. But, it wasn’t to be.

It’s hard to know what yesterday’s loss means in terms of the building pressure on manager Frank Lampard.

I’m not sure many Evertonians expected the team to win at Old Trafford (especially given the club’s dreadful record there) but the fact that the performance was markedly better than Tuesday, might have actually eased the pressure on Lampard a little.

However, it was still of course a defeat and that’s the bottom line. Form like this would likely get most managers the sack by now.

For Everton though the almost endless managerial merry-go-round over the last few years with the resultant financial costs, has made the club more reluctant than most to pull the trigger, even when it seems inevitable.

That was the case last season when the clamour for Rafa Benitez to be fired was growing fast as results nosedived but the club were very unwilling to do the dirty deed.

As I have said before I don’t know if sacking Lampard will make any real difference, just as sacking Benitez ultimately hasn’t either (if you go by results anyway).

There may be a short-term bounce, but as everyone knows the club’s real problems go much, much deeper than just whoever happens to be sitting in the dugout.

Anyway, this discussion will no doubt rumble on in the background. Everton do have to make a final decision about his future soon, as time is ticking on in the transfer window and the club still haven’t added new faces.