Everton boss David Moyes hails greatest day as a football manager

"I felt it was a big day but in the end the team did their job and the supporters did their job. It was only a semi-final and we've not won anything yet but it was an important moment for the football club and for the players.

"We've had three top-six finishes in the last four years and with a bit of luck there will be another one this year. We're a club which is preparing for success."

Moyes added: "As a club, reaching a major final was the next step in our progression. It's more important as we as a football club rather than David Moyes. I thought we needed European football a couple of years ago and hopefully we're getting a bit better at that and we needed good runs in cups which we've not had in the past.

"This was preparation for the final, we've been here and done it and we'll prepare ourselves for what we need to do in a month's time."

Everton recovered from Tim Cahill missing their first kick in the shoot out and Moyes was delighted with the mental toughness his players showed. Leighton Baines put them in front while their other shoot-out scorers were captain Phil Neville against his former club, James Vaughan, playing his first senior game for five months, and Phil Jagielka, who netted the decisive strike a season after missing a crucial kick in the shoot-out defeat to Fiorentina in the UEFA Cup.

Moyes said: "I don't think he (Jagielka) was madly keen on taking one. He's taken one in training and scored so it stuck in my mind so good on him. I sent James Vaughan up to take one who hasn't played for five months and Phil Jagielka who missed one against Fiorentina - there wasn't many more coming up for them. When Tim missed the first one we were worried because Manchester United have been in those kind of situations so many times and they won the Champions League in a shoot-out. I asked who wanted to take them and a few heads nodded but there were a lot of tired players out there. It took great courage for James Vaughan to go up, he probably only had a dozen kicks in the whole game."

He added: "I think as a man Tim Howard deserves the plaudits - he's worked really hard at his game.

"Phil Neville too, playing against his old team, I think they'll take a little bit of pleasure there but their Everton players now and they work really hard for the club and they're top professionals."

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Everton's cup run has been against a back drop of long-term injuries this term but they received a pre-match boost when United manager Sir Alex Ferguson chose to rest several of his stars - leaving Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Edwin van der Sar back home.

Moyes said: "We've been battling against adversity this season, we've not been able to rest our best players, we were putting out all that we've got. You could see our injured players around there like Ayegbeni Yakubu, Mikel Arteta and Victor Anichebe and we need them, we don't have a squad big enough.

"I was thinking they've (United) got some young boys full of energy and if they'd have played more of the players who figured at Porto they might not have had as much energy. They had fresh legs with new players coming into the team. I think I understand why Sir Alex picked his young lads - he's already got two trophies under his belt this season, is still in the Champions League and is going for the Premier League. The key to developing players is to give them opportunities and I don't think the young boys let him down, they made a good game of it and made it hard for us."

He added: "I thought before the game that all the expectation was on Manchester United. I think after Sir Alex's team selection there was a change and a bigger expectation for Everton to win because of it.

"If I'd have lost everyone would have been saying it wasn't a full strength United team - maybe they'll still be saying that. But when you have to play Liverpool twice and you beat them, you beat Aston Villa, you beat Middlesbrough and Macclesfield on a cold January day, then you deserve to be in the final."