One car crash cost Louis Saha a £170,000 Ferrari on Sunday and another ensured Jermaine Beckford missed the kick-off against Reading. They encountered a third in the form of Everton's abysmal farewell to the FA Cup at Goodison Park, for which no insurance policy can cover David Moyes.

All that work and fortune against Chelsea in the previous round and the ultimate reward was humiliation at the hands of Brian McDermott's Championship team. The Reading fans were quick to denigrate this part of Merseyside but perhaps they should relocate. Last year it was Liverpool in the third round at Anfield and now they have brought Everton's campaign to a fittingly sorry end to secure a place in the quarter-finals for the second season in succession. Neither Premier League scalp could be passed off as a fluke.

"I like it up here," said the Reading manager, who was a caretaker seeking permanent employment when he triumphed at Anfield last January. "To get clapped off not just by our own fans but by the Everton supporters is a great feeling and something I will never forget." Goodison's applause, along with its condemnation of the home side, was thoroughly merited.

Reading were the more composed, resilient and threatening throughout the fifth-round tie. Everton, by contrast, were a pale imitation of the team who defeated the holders on penalties 10 days previously but everything their manager and supporters have begun to realise: an inconsistent outfit lacking in quality and with too few players prepared to take responsibility. One who does, Marouane Fellaini, will miss the rest of the season with an ankle injury that requires surgery while another, Tim Cahill, is out for three weeks with a foot problem.

Beckford was due to start the game but was dropped to the substitutes' bench having been caught in a traffic jam by the closure of the M62. Many Everton players had to travel into work in the same direction as the former Leeds United striker but only Beckford was late. "It can happen to anyone," Moyes said. "I hadn't named the team."

While Beckford was getting changed, his team-mates opened in a casual, careless manner that offered encouragement to the Championship side. Reading carried the greater threat on the counterattack and should have led by more than the captain Matt Mills's 26th-minute strike.

Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, one of many Everton midfielders to endure a woeful night, chipped Leon Osman into space inside the area and although Seamus Coleman met his cross with a textbook header, which beat goalkeeper Alex McCarthy, the ball bounced up and over the crossbar.

Reading were stronger in the tackle than Everton, winning most of the second balls as a result and were also superior to their Premier League hosts on the flanks through the enterprising Jimmy Kébé and Jobi McAnuff. They took the lead with their first attack after Mikele Leigertwood's shot was deflected wide by Phil Jagielka and presented Ian Harte with the chance to demonstrate that time has not diminished his abilities with a dead ball. Mills won the former Leeds defender's corner in the air and, when Osman sliced a weak clearance back into his path, the Reading centre-half controlled and fired low beyond Tim Howard.

McDermott's side should have doubled their lead seconds later when Sylvain Distin miscontrolled Harte's long ball into the path of Kébé. The Reading right-winger was clean through on goal, steadied himself, but shot too close to Howard who saved with his legs.

An hour of the game remained yet Everton were evidently unnerved by Reading's refusal to follow the script and desperation crept into an already poor display. Moyes's constant tinkering of his tactics added to the problem. Bilyaletdinov and Coleman, who was nursing an injury before the game, were hauled off at the break as Moyes went for broke by introducing the strikers Beckford and Victor Anichebe.

Beckford and Osman both went close but Reading continued to create the clearer chances, with Jay Tabb close to doubling the visitors' lead in the closing minutes. "We had no craft at the top end of the pitch," Moyes said. Everton's problems run far deeper than that.