Match Reaction: Roberto Martinez: We Were Hard Done By Everton boss Roberto Martinez said his side were hard done by in going down to a 1-0 defeat against Stoke City. The Blues boss felt the Potters could have been reduced to 10-men when Jonathan Walters received only a yellow card for a foul on Leighton Baines - an incident that came just moments before the penalty award that gifted Stoke their winner. Martinez said: I think the decision with Jonathan Walters is a difficult one to understand because, clearly, the referee saw an infringement and gave a free-kick. Leighton Baines is running onto the ball in front of goal and, even though he is outside the box, there was no other Stoke defender. Walters is the last man and, for me, it is a clear goalscoring opportunity. I don’t understand why it’s a yellow card. It should either be nothing or a red card. Mirallas resulting free-kick struck the Stoke wall and almost immediately after, the fit-again James McCarthy was punished after tangling with Bojan in the box. The Spaniard got up to convert the spot-kick himself and Martinez said: I don’t think there is enough contact for a penalty. I can understand why he gave it but you can see on the replay both his feet go off the ground with no contact and you can see the striker looking for a decision rather than it being a clear-cut penalty. The Blues also lost goalkeeper Tim Howard and skipper Phil Jagielka to injury at half-time and both are now likely to miss Sundays trip to Newcastle United. Martinez added: It was a difficult afternoon. I think Tim Howard and Phil Jagielka having to come off at half-time disrupted our flow in the second half. I don’t think we are in a great moment of the season but I don’t think anything that could have gone in our favour did today. I felt we created enough chances once we conceded the goal to at least get back into the game and force Stoke into a different way of playing in the second half. They had no shots on target in the second half, which meant they were well set defensively and we found it difficult to create clear-cut opportunities.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 19:24:11 +0000
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