Everton have warmed up for their FA Cup semi-final clash with Liverpool in convincing fashion, beating Sunderland 4-0 at Goodison Park on Monday.
Second half goals from Magaye Gueye, Steven Pienaar, Leon Osman and Victor Anichebe sealed a comfortable victory for the Merseysiders; Black Cats boss Martin O’Neill admitted that his side were well beaten.
“We were well beaten in the second half. We didn’t have enough energy and Everton deserved to beat us,” the Northern Irishman confessed to Sky Sports.
“I thought the first goal was the most important one. My first thoughts were there was a foul on Jack Colback for it. If that had been the deciding goal I might have been more concerned about it but we were well beaten.
“It’s been a tremendous effort by the team this last three or four months but we just ran out of steam today.
“We’ll just have to try and get ourselves together and recuperate as we still have a lot to play for between now and the end of the season.
“I think every single time we’ve had a setback we’ve responded and that’s shown the character of the team,” he concluded.
By Gareth McKnight
[ad_pod id=’unruly-2′ align=’left’]
