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Seamus Coleman believes Everton showed the spirit of genuine top four contenders by beating Fulham despite not being at their best.

The Blues had looked comfortable during the first half against Renne Meulensteen’s relegation-haunted side at Goodison on Saturday, but had to survive a scare when the Cottagers regained parity in the second period via a Dimitar Berbatov penalty.

Coleman reckons Everton proved they are developing the winning mentality of a club worthy of Champions League qualification by responding to win 4-1.

He said: “I think top teams have that habit of maybe not playing well at times but always getting results. That’s where we want to be so it’s a positive that we can maybe have an off-day and still win comfortably.

“We were a bit disappointed especially given the way we’d played in the last few games against the top teams.

“We were a bit sloppy at times with some of our passing. We were all a bit guilty of that but thankfully we got what was most important being the points.

“When we got a couple of goals up we started to enjoy it a bit more but we should have been enjoying it more from the start.”

Coleman insists he could not fathom why the Blues appeared to deteriorate in the second half, but underlined that complacency was not a factor.

“There wasn’t any complacency. The manager had us well warned that they have a new manager and they’re not the Fulham they were two or three weeks ago. You could see that, because they were very well organised, even if that doesn’t excuse some of our passing.

“It’s hard to put your finger on it. We tried to do all the right things but they pressed us at good moments. Even so we expected better of ourselves.”

The Republic of Ireland international provided the all-important second goal that restored Everton’s lead, a strike which took his tally to three this term.

However, the 25-year-old explained that his focus remains on the defensive side of his role rather than scoring.

“I haven’t necessarily focused on adding more goals,” said Coleman . “The manager has told me to get in at the back post at times. He told me against Norwich and it worked and same against Fulham.

“I saw Steven (Pienaar) was going to put it back across goal and I took a chance. Thankfully I couldn’t miss.”

The biggest disappointment of Saturday’s game for Everton was the sight of on-loan Barcelona starlet Gerard Deulofeu departing on a stretcher with a suspected hamstring tear. Scans today will reveal how long the Catalan winger will be out, but Coleman is satisfied that the Blues have enough strength in depth to withstand his absence.

He said: “We don’t know how serious it is yet but we’ll miss him because he’s been fantastic. He gets the fans off their seats.

“Now you can see we’ve got players to come in sitting on the bench who are just as good as the lads starting. Kevin Mirallas came on and scored a great goal.”