No excuses for woeful Everton: Neville

Phil Neville has told his Everton team-mates to forget about Europe and concentrate on winning after the Toffees’ dismal start to the season continued with a League Cup exit to lowly Brentford.

Everton suffered a humiliating exit to League One opponents on Tuesday, a cup defeat which followed losses to Blackburn, Newcastle and Aston Villa that have left them languishing second from bottom of the Premier League.

“There are no excuses. No hiding places. We don’t deserve to win these football matches at the moment,” Neville told the Liverpool Echo.

“We didn’t win at Blackburn – hard luck. We didn’t win at Wolves – hard luck. We couldn’t beat Villa – hard luck. Everyone says we’re playing well but not winning games. Forget all that rubbish now – it’s got to the point where it’s time to realise where we are.

“Forget Champions League football, forget Europa League football. Focus on Saturday and just winning. Maybe at the start of the season we looked at the end of the season rather than concentrating on the now.”

Everton will hope to snap their run of poor form against Fulham on Saturday, with manager David Moyes hoping his strikers can find their scoring boots.

Jermaine Beckford, Louis Saha and Yakubu have all struggled in front of goal for Everton, who are yet to score away from home this season.

“We just haven’t been clinical enough at the other end,” said Moyes, who admits he has been “concerned” by the slump.

“Any manager in that position would be concerned,” Moyes said. “It has been a bad start to the season but it’s my job to get managing and get things turned around.”