Portsmouth won 3-0 to condemn the Toffees to their second successive home loss and further expose the weaknesses in Moyes' squad.

The fear is the Everton squad is painfully thin and that message was hammered home by a rampant Pompey outfit who marched to victory with goals from England internationals Jermain Defoe (2) and Glen Johnson.

Striker James Vaughan, 20, and midfielder Jack Rodwell, 17, lined up for Everton and defender Phil Jagielka was again deployed as a makeshift midfielder.

But, worryingly for Moyes, it was his established players who failed to perform.

In a damning assessment, the Scot said: "We are lacking quality at the moment and we are probably, in a lot of ways, not ready to win Premier League games yet.

"We've still got Phil Jagielka playing in the centre of midfield when he's a centre-back.

"We've also got a 17-year-old (Rodwell) playing there who I thought did really well and is improving all the time.

"James Vaughan could probably do with half a dozen games in the reserves, but he has to play because we don't have anyone else to come in.

"Having said that, I don't think it's those players who are necessarily letting us down.

"There are big players in the team not playing as well as they should be."

Everton slumped to a 3-2 home defeat against Blackburn on the opening day of the season before winning at West Brom the following weekend.

But Moyes admits his men deserved nothing from all three of their Premier League outings so far this term.

None of his recent signings - Louis Saha, Segundo Castillo and Lars Christian Jacobsen - featured against Portsmouth.

The Goodison boss will desperately try and recruit new faces before the transfer window closes.

But he will not come close to strengthening his squad in the way he had hoped.

"We have played three games this year and I don't think we've deserved to win any," admitted Moyes.

"Out of them all, this was the one where we created some opportunities whereas in the other games we've created just about none.

"But it wasn't our day - we defended poorly and didn't take our opportunities whereas Portsmouth defended well and took their chances when they came."

ends