Preview Panel - Everton

David Howells, FA Cup winner in 1991 and three-time semi-finalist and Patrick Boyland, Everton correspondent for The Athletic, look ahead to this evening’s FA Cup fifth round tie at Goodison Park (8.15pm).

Introducing the panel

David Howells - A box-to-box midfielder, David came through the youth system to play 335 times for us between 1986-1998. He was part of the team that beat Arsenal in the first-ever FA Cup semi-final at Wembley, and then went on to lift the trophy against Forest in 1991, but then suffered semi-final defeats in 1993 and 1995, where we lost out to Everton. @Howellsey

Patrick Boyland - Formerly of ESPN, Mail Online and Sportsbeat, Patrick has over five years of experience covering Everton in both a regional and national capacity. Boyland's views on the Toffees have been sought out by the BBC, Sky Sports and Premier League TV amongst others, while he also features regularly on popular radio show and podcast The Blue Room. @Paddy_Boyland

David Howells

“In 1991, we played Arsenal in the semi-final, having had favourable draws up to then, you could say. You can’t get to the latter stages without playing one of the more fancied teams, and here we are. Everton away is a tough game under any circumstances. They are a much-improved team over the last couple of seasons under Carlo Ancelotti and they will have as much desire to win the FA Cup as we have. I’ve been impressed with Everton, James Rodriguez brings that little bit of class and experience, they have a wonderful manager and I like the direction they are going in. Having said all that, we’ve played ourselves back into a bit of form against West Brom and we go up there in good spirits. Back in our day, even when we had replays, these ties still felt like a one-off. Look at that Liverpool game in 1995 (quarter-final at Anfield, we won 2-1), we were still pushing on trying to win it at 1-1 when Jurgen scored, even though a draw at Anfield is always a good result. In cup games, you have that inner desire to go and finish it there and then. The fans drive you on as well, home and away. That’s always a factor. As brilliant as the FA Cup has been this year, it’s been such a shame not to have fans in there, and knowing our fans, we would have sold out as well, so it would have been an incredible atmosphere. This is a ‘proper’ FA Cup tie, Goodison Park, Everton against Spurs, fifth round. It will be tough, and we’ll have to be at it to get through.”

Patrick Boyland

“The first thing to say is that this is a really important game for Everton. Sometimes, certainly in the modern game, there is a trend to sacrificing the FA Cup, or not taking it seriously, the league takes priority, and I kind of understand that for lots of teams, whose bread and butter is to stay in the division. But for a team that hasn’t won a cup since 1995, an established Premier League side, I think for Everton the FA Cup still takes on great resonance, and for Carlo Ancelotti and the people in charge of the club at the moment, the idea would be to bring silverware back to Goodison Park as soon as possible. I think Everton will approach this as if it’s a Premier League game, pretty strong. The tactical battle will be interesting. What we’ve seen from Everton so far this season is that they’ve been fantastic away from home, and their best results have come on the road. They beat Spurs on the opening day, played very well, and they’ve found a blueprint on the road that suits them. They are not over expansive, they keep it tight, normally allow the other side to have more of the ball and then look to pounce via a cross, set piece or counter-attack. What they are not so great at doing is taking the game to the opposition at Goodison. So, what we’ve seen this season is a win away to a team like Spurs, but then a defeat at home to Newcastle, or Leeds. That’s the final piece of the jigsaw for Ancelotti and Everton. Everyone is talking about them as European contenders, they are slap, bang in the race for European places, but if they are going to push on, they are going to have to dominate games more and know how to use the ball more. That throws up an interesting dilemma for Wednesday night. They are the home side, and while there is no crowd there, do they go for it? I’m not so sure they will. I think they will almost allow Spurs to edge their way into the game and then see if they can pounce on a mistake. If you look at the height in the team, Michael Keane, Yerry Mina, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Abdoulaye Doucoure, it’s a very tall Everton side and they have players who can deliver the ball, the likes of Lucas Digne, Gylfi Sigurdsson and James Rodriguez. Everton’s record at set pieces is right up there with the best in the league at the moment, it’s rare they concede that way, and I think that’s a potential route for success for Everton, particularly bearing mind what happened on the opening day. I imagine it will be nip and tuck and quite cagey in spells. Everton will be wary of Heung-Min Son and Harry Kane and giving away too much space in behind. They normally play with a deep, low defensive line and it will be a continuation of that.”