Everton captain Phil Neville admits their FA Cup final defeat to Chelsea still burns.

"If I'm honest, Wembley still rankles with me now," he told evertonfc.com. "The funny thing about football is that you remember the defeats in football more than you remember the good times but we have got to use what happened to our advantage.

"The reason it stayed with me so long was because I honestly believed we were going to do it; we had done unbelievably well to get to the final and it hurt so much that we came up short when it really mattered.

"Yes, we were playing Chelsea but I have got big expectations for this team. I had three-and-a-half weeks away in the summer but I just couldn't stop thinking about Wembley.

"I couldn't forget the emptiness I felt walking up the stairs and not being able to get my hands on the FA Cup. I don't think I ever will.

"That probably clouded my view of the season but only when I got home I realised what we had done.

"I had an afternoon with my son and we watched the DVD together. It was only then I realised we had every reason to be proud of our achievement and we have got to believe we can do the same - if not better - when we start for real again.

"We climbed a lot of mountains last year and in some ways the challenge is going to be bigger again but we are a consistent side and are still improving; nothing we do should shock people."