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Roberto Martinez admitted Everton FC are not too good to go down - but insisted he won't allow his players to dwell on the prospect of a looming relegation battle.

The Blues stayed 14th in the Premier League table after their dismal 2-0 defeat by Stoke City, and remain just six points from the drop-zone.

Defeats for QPR and Burnley meant the growing unease at Goodison was, on paper at least, not intensified – but Martinez conceded that his side do not have a divine right to avoid being dragged into the mire.

Asked whether the Toffees have too much quality in their ranks to get sucked into a dog-fight, he said: “No - but we are a team that is very confident in the talent we have.

“The only thing we want is games and a positive feeling. We're not looking down.

“There have been small margins for us but we are facing the challenge straight on as a football club.

“Now we have the challenge of 10 games, six of them at Goodison and 30 points to play for and we will give our lives to get as many as we can.”

The Blues were undone by goals in each half from Victor Moses and Mame Diouf, but Martinez said rank misfortune was the chief culprit for this latest setback.

“We carried such a big negative momentum that everything that could go wrong went wrong,” he said.“The only free cross we let into the box we didn't defend well, and it went to the most unlikely header of the ball in that area and that's disappointing.

“In the second half we had a couple of opportunities as we got stronger.

“The second goal was a very unfortunate action. I felt Phil Jagielka was impeded.

“But we didn't show enough cutting edge. I felt we showed a lot of character and effort but showed it was the fifth game in two weeks.”

Martinez also paid tribute to the near-3000 away fans who travelled to the Britannia Stadium after they notably tried to the lift the players as they entered and re-emerged from the tunnel either side of the half-time break.



"The fans were incredible," said the Blues boss. "The support was amazing and the players felt that way about it.



"It's a demanding period but that starting point the fans gives us is going to help us win points.



"You can understand the frustration that we all share but at the same time that can be a very powerful tool and we know we need to take advantage of that in the games ahead."



Leighton Baines sat out the game with the same quad problem that forced him to miss Sunday's defeat at Arsenal and Martinez revealed the left-back is again likely to be absent for next week's visit of Kiev.



Asked for the latest on the England international, Martinez said: "Next Thursday for the Europa League could be too soon for Leighton but I'm very confident he'll be back after that."