James Garner blames a poor first-half showing for Everton's cup exit

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James Garner rejected the idea that Everton's season is now over, pointing to the fact they sit within touching distance of the European places in the Premier League table.

“The season definitely isn’t over," he said. "The season is over for the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, but we still have got half a season [of the Premier League] left.

“You see how tight the league is; if you win one game, you are right up there again, so the season is definitely not over.

“We are definitely a better side than we were last season, and we have shown that we are just in a little bit of a bad patch at the moment, but hopefully in the next game or two we can get out of it.

“It's very disappointing,” he said. “[It was] hard to get back into the game. We were the better side in the second half, and we got the goal back and then extra-time, everyone was knackered.

“You know, we're down to the bare bones with players and with all the injuries and lads off at Afcon and all the suspensions and stuff.

“I think we were much better in the second half. I think if we would have started the game how we came out in the second half, it probably would have been a different result.

“But there aren’t many positives to take, other than we were a much better team in the second half, but it isn’t good enough, so we have to start games like that, and hopefully in the future we will get better results.”

“So, to stay in the game and take it into penalties was good, but it wasn’t good enough because me and the boys need to put the ball in the back of the net and there's no excuses for that.

“We know what the ground is like here, and if we get them onside as fast as we can with our pressing and intensity, 9 times out of 10 it ends up being a good game for us and not them.

“That was what we failed to do in the first half, but like I said, in the second half we were much better.”

But Garner could offer no update on his contract situation: "No, it's pretty much the same as it was.”

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