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" The Blues have got enough in the tank to beat Carlisle comfortably. I would imagine that first and foremost Everton will want to get a solid lead in the tie and then David can make changes and bring the younger lads on if he likes. They have a full week to recover so it is not a big ask for the senior players. The game will also give Phil Neville a great chance to get some match fitness under his belt.
" After seeing how close they came last season, Everton's players should want to do it again this time. The momentum their successful run gave the club was fantastic. It may be their strongest chance of achieving something too. When you look at the Europa league there are a lot of top clubs in it now, and it's going to be very, very difficult to get to the final stages. "
Former Everton goalkeeper Nigel Martyn not giving Carlisle any chance either as he told the Liverpool Echo :
" I still do some coaching work with Bradford, so I know a little about Everton's FA Cup opponents Carlisle - and without being complacent there's nothing Everton should be overly concerned about at the weekend. The Cumbrians knocked Bradford out of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy earlier this season, although the Bradford lads' assessment of them was "they weren't that brilliant".
" The match swung on a red card and Carlisle went on to win 3-0, but there was absolutely nothing to suggest that, provided Everton go about their business in the correct manner, there will be an upset at the weekend. It's one of those games that we should be able to use as another week closer to fitness for some of the injured lads. Phil Neville could come in, Leon Osman could get another game under his belt and Louis Saha may be able to rest his bumps and bruises."
And one-time Carlisle and Everton centre-half Derek Mountfield commented to the official Toffee's website :
" In 1994-95 I had a year at Carlisle where we managed to win the League Championship Third Division and reach Wembley for the first time. My claim to fame is scoring the goal that took us to Wembley. A lovely time, my only problem was that I lived in Birmingham so it was a 200 mile one way journey just for training.
" When I went there, Michael Knighton, the famous Michael Knighton, was in charge and he had a ten year plan to get them into the First Division as it was then, or the Premier League. It didn't quite work out, they won the league, went up, came down, won promotion again. So they have been a bit of a yo-yo team for four or five years and then they had a few financial problems.
" Michael Knighton no longer there and it has been taken over by a local gentleman I believe and they are slowly but surely picking themselves up. They have had a couple of good results recently, they will be hopefully looking to bounce back from a disappointing three or four years.
" Hopefully they will be no proposition, I shouldn't say that but being a Premier League side and being the home team we should be able to get the game comfortably won. But it is the FA Cup and that is what it is all about, it is a one-off game of 90 minutes and one team can raise their game, you never know what the result is going to be. As Oldham proved here a couple of years ago, but if Everton play like they did against Liverpool then they have got a great chance. "