Baines hoping for change in Everton's fortunes

Having finished fifth in Roberto Martinez's first season at Goodison Park, Everton were expected to kick on in 2014-15, but have failed to find any consistency.

An eighth league defeat of the season at Newcastle United on Sunday saw Everton drop to 12th in the table at the halfway stage. And Baines knows the Merseyside club must improve quickly to ensure they are challenging for a European place in May.

"Obviously, we're down at the moment – we're on a poor run and there is no sense in kidding ourselves," he told the club's official website.

"We've got to go away and look at ourselves because, at the moment, things aren't going well but we'll keep working as hard as we can to turn things around.

"We're letting sides back into games and that obviously changes the momentum in games.

"We have to be concerned about it because, at the moment, we aren’t showing enough good signs of turning it around.

"It's very important to start 2015 with a win and we're looking at it [Thursday's game at Hull City] as a chance to turn things around for us. 

"We still think that if we can get back to the levels we set, next year can be a really good one for us."