Everton need to keep the faith, insists Martinez

Everton boss Roberto Martinez has urged his side to keep the faith despite another disappointing result on Monday.

The Goodison Park outfit have not won any of their last eight matches in all competitions, and have claimed just one victory since November.

As a result, Martinez's men have slipped to 12th in the Premier League table - just four points above the relegation zone.

Kevin Mirallas missed a first-half penalty in a 0-0 draw against West Brom on Monday, leaving Martinez to lament the club's poor fortune.

But the Spaniard did find some things that pleased him, quoted as saying in the Liverpool Echo post-match: "We are in the middle of a period where everything is going against us.

"We are not going to accept defeat and today would have been too easy to leave ourselves exposed and allow West Brom to hit us on the counter and win the football game.

"But that never happened and it is something to carry on building on the last three performances.

"It is a frustrating period and you could see visiting teams want to play on that.

"We need to find solutions quickly and make sure we know how to win games even in this moment.

"We are going to take this opportunity to go for some warm weather training and reset ourselves for the second half of the season and get back to our confident mood and we need that to win football matches."

Martinez, who took Mirallas off at half-time and claimed he had a hamstring problem, was booed when he replaced Muhamed Besic with Arouna Kone in the latter stages of Monday's clash.

The Everton boss explained that the Bosnia international was injured, though.

When asked if the crowd's reaction to Besic's withdrawal surprised him, Martinez said: "It did. But I can understand the frustration around the crowd as well.

"Mo has to come off but then he wants to sprint off to allow Arouna to come on.

"I don't think it sends the right sign but it is just part of the frustration."

Everton, knocked out of the FA Cup by West Ham United last week, do not play again until January 31 - when they visit Crystal Palace.