The Scot recently celebrated nine years in charge at Goodison Park, the third longest-serving Barclays Premier League boss behind Manchester United's Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsenal's Arsene Wenger.

But he will end another campaign trophyless and the club is likely to miss out on European football again next season as they are currently eighth, nine points adrift of fifth-placed Tottenham.

And having had his hopes raised for better things just over 12 months ago Moyes is frustrated.

"I went into the season with more confidence in the team," he said.

"Last season we finished having lost two out of 24 games. If you just counted those 24 games I think we may have been Premier League champions; if not we would have been second.

"I went into this season saying we only need to go close to that and we've got a really good chance of being near the top.

"I think that's where my disappointment has come. I'm fed up of saying to the supporters every year let's just avoid relegation.

"I wanted to see if I could change the way that we started the season by talking more positive about it, building it up a bit more, and saying to the players 'come on this is what is expected of you now'.

"As it is it fell flat on its face and I'm really disappointed I haven't been able to get to the level that I hoped to."

Moyes pointed to his failure to sign a striker last summer as having a significant impact on their fortunes.

Jermaine Beckford was brought in on a free transfer after he had helped Leeds earn promotion from League One but the Toffees boss wanted someone with more experience to held ease the burden.

That signing never materialised and Everton have suffered as a result with Tim Cahill having to be employed as a centre-forward on occasions.

When Ayegbeni Yakubu and James Vaughan were loaned to Leicester and Crystal Palace in January it increased the pressure on Louis Saha and Beckford.

The former, whose poor form prior to January saw him net just once - in a Carling Cup victory over Huddersfield - in five months, has responded with nine goals since the turn of the year but injuries continue to be a problem for the Frenchman.

"I knew we were short of a centre-forward and maybe more than one," Moyes told talkSPORT.

"I got Jermaine Beckford, who had jumped two divisions, and I was saying 'let's not put too much pressure on him, get him off the bench, play some games at the right moment and that's the ideal way to introduce him'.

"But we didn't get the centre-forward which we needed to go with the rest of the team.

"Our play was very good, we continued in the form with our football, but we didn't have the goalscorers to finish it off at the start of the year and that definitely had an effect on us."