WHEN Norwich lost 3-1 to Everton in the third round of last season's FA Cup, boss Nigel Worthington was quizzed on whether the defeat proved his side would wilt in the heat of the First Division promotion battle. Five months later, the Canaries were in the Premiership.

Similarly, West Brom were riding high in the league when they suffered a shock 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest at the same stage of last season's competition. But, by May, events at the City Ground had long been forgotten.

The FA Cup might be the greatest cup competition in football, but it also one of the biggest distractions.

While Norwich and West Brom were resting tired minds and even wearier legs, Sunderland's players were slogging their way through six extra games before suffering play-off heartbreak at the hands of Crystal Palace. Needless to say, the Eagles' cup campaign was over by January as well.

Mick McCarthy has never used last season's FA Cup exploits as an excuse for his side falling short but, by noting that his players were "shattered" when they lost 1-0 at Ipswich in April, the Black Cats boss tacitly accepted the inherent dangers of an extended cup run.

With April already looking like a pivotal period again - Sunderland have to travel to Wigan, Ipswich and West Ham - the last thing McCarthy needed was more games and more opportunity for his players to take their eye off the ball.

So, while the Sunderland boss will have been concerned by just how easily his side were brushed aside by Everton on Saturday, he is canny enough to know that the 3-0 defeat could yet prove something of a blessing in disguise.

"The FA Cup is important to us," said McCarthy, no doubt mindful of the strong emotional hold which cup football continues to exert in the North-East. "We didn't come down here with 6,000 fans and roll over to get beat.

"It was important this weekend, but it's not important any more. The league's the only thing for us to focus on now.

"It's the Wolves game on Friday night that's important now. We had a great run last year and we could have got to the final, but that's in the past.

"The FA Cup's gone and we've got to crack on. Let's try to win the league - that's what we'll be focusing on now."

To 'concentrate on the league' might be one of the most tired cliches in the book but, like most footballing adages, it has become so over-used because there is generally a semblance of truth behind it.

McCarthy will not run into another Everton when he turns his attention back to the Championship but, while the remarkable renaissance of the 'Moyes Boys' could yet take them to the Champions League, the Sunderland boss will still have been alarmed by some of the glaring deficiencies in his own ranks.

In particular, he will have the noted the way in which full-back Stephen Wright was terrorised by former Sunderland winger Kevin Kilbane as he made an emotional return to his native Merseyside.

Kilbane was a figure of fun in the latter stages of his four-year spell on Wearside but, after waltzing round Wright in the second minute to whip in the first of a succession of teasing crosses, the Republic of Ireland international ensured he would enjoy the last laugh.

Wright's misery was ended when he was hauled off shortly after the hour mark but, by then, the former Liverpool full-back had nurtured a sense of confusion that spread throughout the Sunderland backline.

Neill and Danny Collins, so impressive against Sheffield United last weekend, found themselves pulled from one side of the pitch to the other as they sought to cut off the supply line from the flanks and track the free running of the impressive James McFadden.

The Scotland international wreaked havoc in the hole behind James Beattie and, with neither Carl Robinson nor Sean Thornton sitting deep enough to pick him up, Sunderland's centre-halves were unable to prevent him having a hand in two of Everton's three goals.

"We were comfortably beaten by a better side," conceded McCarthy. "I can have no arguments about that.

"It didn't happen for us. Everton looked like a team in fourth - they had a swagger about them and a confidence. They had the arrogance of a team that believe in themselves.

"Someone said 'It just shows what a big gulf there is between the Premiership and the Championship'. But they weren't saying that three weeks ago when we beat Crystal Palace comfortably and we just ran into a better team on the day."

Sunderland were on the back foot from the ninth minute when, despite earlier warnings, they allowed Kilbane enough space to curl in a deft left-wing cross that McFadden steered home from close range.

The youngster almost made it two shortly after - George McCartney blocking a goalbound shot from inside his own six-yard box - before Beattie extended the home side's lead with a more than a little help from Danny Collins.

Former Everton goalkeeper Thomas Myhre looked certain to gather Beattie's tame 28th-minute strike, before Collins slid in to poke the ball into the left-hand corner of the net.

Unsurprisingly, Beattie claimed the goal as his first in an Everton shirt, despite McCarthy claiming that Myhre could have "stood on it, pirouetted and had a sup of his pint" had Collins not intervened.

The Black Cats should have pulled a goal back before the break but, after Richard Wright had parried Julio Arca's stinging left-footed volley, Dean Whitehead stabbed the rebound over from just ten yards.

Tim Cahill added a third for Everton ten minutes from time - heading home McFadden's cross to add to the semi-final winner he netted against Sunderland for Millwall last season - before substitute Michael Bridges blazed over at the other end in stoppage time.

The result means there will be no trip to Cardiff in May. But you won't hear many Sunderland fans complaining if it helps to avoid a rather more mundane trip to the Welsh capital to play at Ninian Park next term.

Result: Everton 3 Sunderland 0.

Read more about Sunderland here.