Saturday 16 April 2016 22:24, UK
Roberto Martinez says he is pleased with the manner in which Everton went about earning a point in their 1-1 draw at home to Southampton.
Everton took the lead in Saturday's Premier League clash at Goodison Park in the 68th minute through Ramiro Funes Mori, before being pegged back by Sadio Mane eight minutes later.
Despite that, Martinez was pleased with how his much-changed side secured a draw against a dominant Southampton.
"It's a good point in the way we had to fight very hard to cope with a demanding fixture," Martinez told Sky Sports.
"Obviously the amount of players missing stretched the squad like we haven't been stretched before, and we had two young players (Tom Davies and Callum Connolly) making their debuts, and I thought they coped with the environment really well.
"When you get in the lead, it's always a bit of a disappointment [to draw], and you felt when we took the lead, we could've held onto it. But I think the point was a well-fought one, we had to work very hard for it and the squad reacted when it was needed."
Martinez made six changes from the side that drew 0-0 at Crystal Palace in midweek, and that showed in Everton's slightly unconvincing performance at Goodison.
"Sometimes you have to dig in and work hard and that came out very clearly," said Martinez. "At the beginning, we looked a little bit disjointed after so many changes from the last game, but we had focus and desire to get ourselves in front, we scored the goal and I can sense the disappointment in the side because we dropped two points."
The result leaves Everton in the bottom half of the Premier League table, and Martinez admitted just four wins at home all season has not been good enough from his side.
Everton now face a huge week with the Merseyside derby on Wednesday followed by their FA Cup semi-final with Manchester United on Saturday.
"We haven't been collecting the wins we've expected to at home and that's always difficult," said Martinez.
"We have a really important week ahead, and we know that when we need our fans they're behind us and make a real difference, and I'm sure we'll be able to pay them back."
