James Garner was speaking following Everton’s FA Cup third-round penalty shootout defeat to Sunderland at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday afternoon
11:00, 11 Jan 2026Updated 12:45, 11 Jan 2026
James Garner in action for Everton against Sunderland in the FA Cup (Image: (Peter Byrne/PA Wire))
James Garner shut down the suggestion that Everton’s season is over and insisted “no excuses” can be made for the way they were dumped out of the FA Cup. The Blues’ hopes of silverware came to a premature end once again on Saturday after three woeful penalties in a shoot-out that saw Sunderland advance into the fourth round with a 3-0 spot-kicks victory.
David Moyes’ side deservedly fell behind when Enzo Le Fee scored an excellent volley past Jordan Pickford following some poor defending. At that stage it looked as though Everton’s struggles at Hill Dickinson Stadium were set to continue.
However, they were handed a lifeline when referee John Brooks deemed Trai Hume had fouled Adam Aznou inside the area, with Garner stepping up to send the tie to extra-time.
OPINION
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But when penalty kicks came around, Garner, Thierno Barry and Beto all saw their efforts saved by Robin Roefs as the Blues became only the second top-flight side to lose a shoot-out in the competition without scoring any of their attempts.
But despite the disappointing setback, Garner rejected the idea that Everton’s campaign is now over, pointing to the fact they sit within touching distance of the European places in the Premier League table.
“The season definitely isn’t over,” he said. “The season is over for the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, but we still have got half a season left.
“You see how tight the league is; if you win one game, you are right up there again, so the season is definitely not over.
“We are definitely a better side than we were last year, and we have shown that we are just in a little bit of a bad patch at the moment, but hopefully in the next game or two we can get out of it.”
James Garner and Romaine Mundle clash during Everton’s FA Cup defeat to Sunderland(Image: (Jess Hornby/Getty Images))
Down to just 12 senior players for the game, Blues boss Moyes had relatively few options available to him, but Garner believes that can’t be used as an excuse.
“It’s very disappointing,” he said. “[It was] hard to get back into the game. We were the better side in the second half, and we got the goal back and then extra-time, everyone was knackered.
“You know, we’re down to the barebones with players and with all the injuries and lads off at AFCON and all the suspensions and stuff.
“So, to stay in the game and take it into penalties was good, but it wasn’t good enough because me and the boys need to put the ball in the back of the net and there’s no excuses for that.”
Garner also believes the outcome of the tie could have been different had Everton not been so poor in the opening 45 minutes.
He said: “I think we were much better in the second half. I think if we would have started the game how we came out in the second half, it probably would have been a different result.
“But there aren’t many positives to take, other than we were a much better team in the second half, but it isn’t good enough, so we have to start games like that, and hopefully in the future we will get better results.”
Asked why the Blues performed so poorly before the break, the midfielder replied: “I couldn’t tell you. We were just very lethargic. We weren’t pressing; we had a lot of the ball but didn’t do too much with it.
Everton players look on during their penalty shootout defeat to Sunderland(Image: (Jess Hornby/Getty Images))
“We know what the ground is like here, and if we get them onside as fast as we can with our pressing and intensity, nine times out of 10 it ends up being a good game for us and not them.
“That was what we failed to do in the first half, but like I said, in the second half we were much better.”
Garner has just six months left on his Everton contract – though there is a performance-based option for a further year that could yet be triggered.
But when asked if he had an update on talks with the club, he replied: “No, pretty much the same as it was.”
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