Sean Dyche has avoided catastrophic Frank Lampard Everton mistake that still frustrates me

After the emotional roller-coaster of the previous week, Evertonians were able to savour the twinge of a long since forgotten emotion at Goodison Park on Wednesday night, the hint of a cup run.

A club and fanbase still reeling from the passing of chairman Bill Kenwright was forced to put up with the whispering campaign surrounding the hearing of their profit and sustainability charge with some outlets filling the void created by an absence of hard facts with a dangerous inference that Everton had somehow already been found guilty with a 12-point deduction on its way.

The Blues’ players keep telling us that such matters aren’t even on their lips when it comes to Finch Farm chatter but they along with club staff and loyal but long-suffering supporters must place their faith in the so-called ‘independent commission’ (Who are they? How and why have they been appointed?) and the process they will draw their conclusions from in a case of which there seems to be very little transparency right now.

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If Everton’s position in the Premier League remains a grey area though, they remain masters of their own destiny when it comes to the cups. Last November, Frank Lampard, one of the most-intelligent men in football was too clever for his own good when he effectively signed his own death warrant as Blues boss by taking the unprecedented step of changing his entire 11 for the Carabao Cup tie at Bournemouth.

Those fans who travelled over a thousand miles in the space of four days from Merseyside to Dorset and back twice to watch a brace of thrashings will need no