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After pre-season jaunts to Kenya and the Swiss Alps, Everton are back in the North West this week for a friendly at Wigan Athletic but the fixture has added poignancy than merely being an opportunity for travelling Blues to make the relatively short trip in great numbers.

After selling out their initial allocation for 5,000 spectators at the 25,138 DW Stadium, Everton have been given an additional 3,600 tickets in the North Stand meaning that there could end up being more than eight-and-a-half thousand away fans at the fixture and the possibility that they might even outnumber their hosts in numbers.

For eight years between 2005-13, the hop down the M58 was Everton's closest away day after the Merseyside Derby but the sides have not met since the Latics relegation from the Premier League in May 2013, just three days after they recorded a shock 1-0 win over Manchester City in the FA Cup final.

Wednesday's game therefore is the first meeting between the clubs since THAT infamous FA Cup quarter-final at Goodison Park on Saturday March 9, 2013.

The game would mark the snuffing out of the last chance for silverware during long-serving manager David Moyes' reign of over 11 years.

By the end of the season he was of course heading to Old Trafford to replace fellow Scot Alex Ferguson and supposedly going on to bigger and better things at Manchester United but that dream quickly died.

Despite his longevity at Goodison Park, since then Moyes has failed to last a single year in any of his subsequent four management roles.

While he will feel aggrieved that his services were dispensed with so soon after he took up the impossible task of trying to fill the shoes of British football's most-decorated manager who had been the previous incumbent for over a quarter of a century – his initial contract would have only just run out – the comprehensive 3-0 defeat to Wigan Athletic a year earlier seemed a watershed moment for many Blues.

Facing a team managed by Roberto Martinez – who of course would succeed Moyes less than three months later – and containing the quartet of Joel Robles, Antolin Alcaraz, James McCarthy and Arouna Kone who would all become Everton players before the summer was out, the shell-shocked home side were ripped apart by three goals within just three minutes and 22 seconds between them from Maynor Figueroa (30), Callum McManaman (31) and Jordi Gomez (33).

The game also unceremoniously brought the final curtain down on Everton's 36-year-old captain Phil Neville's playing career.

Hooked at half-time, he would not kick a ball again as a professional after some 748 senior matches (689 at club level and 59 for England).

(Image: Michael Steele/Getty Images)

At least Neville's elder brother Gary got to control his own destiny when hanging up his boots – revealing that he knew when sat on the toilet during the interval of a 2-1 win at West Bromwich Albion on New Year's Day 2011 that it would be his final outing.

Far more pressing for Blues though was the crystallisation of thoughts that for all the positives that Moyes had brought to their club over more than a decade of hard work – a classic percentages man, he did far more good things than bad – he did not have what it took to steer them to silverware.

He had of course presided over some embarrassing cup exits over his substantial tenure – in terms of league places former Everton captain Kevin Ratcliffe's Conference-bound Shrewsbury Town were the lowest-ranked side to ever beat the Blues with a 2-1 humiliation in Moyes' first season – while there was also the 1-0 giant-killing by third-tier Oldham Athletic at Goodison in 2008.

However, as Moyes' reign progressed, he appeared to be building a team capable of ending the club's trophy drought that stretched back to the 1-0 win over Ferguson's Manchester United by Joe Royle's self-proclaimed 'Dogs of War' in the 1995 FA Cup final.

In the month before Everton were beaten 2-1 by Chelsea in the 2009 FA Cup final – having knocked out both Liverpool and Manchester United en route – Moyes boldly proclaimed: “Everton will win a trophy soon, that is for sure.”

Over a decade on, the Blues cabinet remains bare and they now go into a 25th year waiting for a major honour for the first time in the club's 141-year history.

There were other big opportunities under Moyes himself, who towards the end of his time at Everton had cultivated a hugely-talented squad, considered the club's strongest since their last title-winning side in 1987.

Yet whenever there was a moment to take that big step, they choked.

Liverpool were midway through a run of seven defeats in 12 matches that would see Reds legend Kenny Dalglish sacked by Anfield chiefs when they met their neighbours in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley in 2012.

Everton in contrast, who would finish above Liverpool for the next two seasons, roared into the game unbeaten in five matches, on a run that had produced four victories.

This was supposed to be the moment that numerous old scores would be settled and some payback for the 1984 League Cup final replay plus 1986 and 1989 FA Cup finals was achieved.

Instead, despite going ahead through in-form Nikita Jelavic and still leading with less than half an hour to go, Everton somehow conspired to lose 2-1 with a once-in-a-lifetime blunder from Sylvain Distin gifting Luis Suarez an equaliser and Andy Carroll, who until that point had been woefully ineffective, popping up with an 87th minute winner.

(Image: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

The collapse at home to relegation-bound Wigan 11 months later merely confounded the fears that Moyes' men always froze when it really mattered.

When Everton take to the field at the DW Stadium, some 2,329 days will have elapsed since their last match against Wigan Athletic but just how close are they now to clinching major honours?

For all his shortcomings in the Premier League, the aforementioned Martinez who of course tasted cup glory with Wigan, has come the closest to securing a cup for the Blues since Moyes' departure.

Ronald Koeman and Sam Allardyce have both come and gone while Marco Silva's dalliances with the domestic knock-out competitions were unconvincing in his first season.

(Image: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

The Portuguese boss was criticised for making too many changes against Southampton as Everton made an early exit in the Carabao Cup on penalties and despite naming a full-strength side at Millwall, he still saw his charges dumped out of the FA Cup by the Championship strugglers.

Given the daunting task of usurping the Premier League's established elite – the Blues would need at least three of the 'big six' to have an off year just to qualify for the Champions League (and that's discounting the challenge from others such as Wolves who finished above them last season), the importance of cup competitions remains paramount with an entire generation of Evertonians having grown up without a moment of tangible glory to appreciate.