Captain Phil Jagielka says Everton must not allow the 3-2 defeat against West Ham United to dent their belief they can overcome Chelsea in the FA Cup next weekend.
The Blues are set to welcome Gus Hiddink's side in the quarter-finals of the competition having lost a two-goal lead to suffer a galling league reverse at the hands of the Hammers on Saturday.
Goals from Romelu Lukaku and Aaron Lennon either side of Kevin Mirallas' 35th-minute dismissal looked to have earned Everton a precious victory, only for Michail Antonio, Diafra Sakho and Dimitri Payet to win it for the visitors in the final 12 minutes after Lukaku had seen a penalty saved by goalkeeper Adrian.
"We did well to get ourselves ahead in the game, then, unfortunately, we were down to 10 men," reflected Jagielka. "We played pretty well for that period and managed to hit them on the counter a few times, got the second, were in control, got the penalty and then pretty much as soon as we missed it, you could see the belief grow in their players and maybe a little bit of nervousness from us. In the end, obviously it cost us.
"They finished the game with a lot of attacking players on the pitch, with a lot of quality and put us under a lot of pressure.
"We did well for periods but, unfortunately the game doesn't end at 77 minutes. We let ourselves down with a couple of decisions defensively - we didn't clear a corner, didn't pick up the second balls.
"We have to take something out of the game and when we look back at the chances we created with 10 men, potentially we could have gone three, maybe four-nil up. But, as it was, it wasn't that way and we've come away with nothing."
Asked about his side's home form, Jagielka added: "We've underperformed at home, we've not been able to capitalise on playing well in periods, we've had a little bit of bad luck here and there but it's been far from good enough for the majority of the season.
"We were hoping today would be the day that we got rid of that but, unfortunately, that has not been the case.
"We've got another big game coming up at home as well and we're going to have to make sure we perform in a way similar to, if not better, than the first hour today and try to get further in the FA Cup."
The Blues are set to welcome Gus Hiddink's side in the quarter-finals of the competition having lost a two-goal lead to suffer a galling league reverse at the hands of the Hammers on Saturday.
Goals from Romelu Lukaku and Aaron Lennon either side of Kevin Mirallas' 35th-minute dismissal looked to have earned Everton a precious victory, only for Michail Antonio, Diafra Sakho and Dimitri Payet to win it for the visitors in the final 12 minutes after Lukaku had seen a penalty saved by goalkeeper Adrian.
"We did well to get ourselves ahead in the game, then, unfortunately, we were down to 10 men," reflected Jagielka. "We played pretty well for that period and managed to hit them on the counter a few times, got the second, were in control, got the penalty and then pretty much as soon as we missed it, you could see the belief grow in their players and maybe a little bit of nervousness from us. In the end, obviously it cost us.
"They finished the game with a lot of attacking players on the pitch, with a lot of quality and put us under a lot of pressure.
"We did well for periods but, unfortunately the game doesn't end at 77 minutes. We let ourselves down with a couple of decisions defensively - we didn't clear a corner, didn't pick up the second balls.
"We have to take something out of the game and when we look back at the chances we created with 10 men, potentially we could have gone three, maybe four-nil up. But, as it was, it wasn't that way and we've come away with nothing."
Asked about his side's home form, Jagielka added: "We've underperformed at home, we've not been able to capitalise on playing well in periods, we've had a little bit of bad luck here and there but it's been far from good enough for the majority of the season.
"We were hoping today would be the day that we got rid of that but, unfortunately, that has not been the case.
"We've got another big game coming up at home as well and we're going to have to make sure we perform in a way similar to, if not better, than the first hour today and try to get further in the FA Cup."
