Baines not dwelling on Cup defeat

Leighton Baines is urging his Everton team-mates to forget their disappointing FA Cup semi-final defeat to Liverpool.

Everton went down 2-1 to Liverpool at Wembley Stadium on Saturday, missing out on their first appearance in the final since 2008/09.

David Moyes’ team are one point and one place above Liverpool with just five matches of the English Premier League season remaining.

And Baines is now determined to help the club finish higher than Liverpool for the first time since 2005.

“That’s what we’ve got to focus on. We need something to focus on now and that will be it,” the 27-year-old said.

“It will take a few days to let the dust settle after this one, but then we’ll pick ourselves up and go again.”

The former Wigan man had no complaints following Everton’s loss to Liverpool, but felt his team did not do themselves justice after taking an early lead through in-form forward Nikica Jelavic.

“To go a goal ahead was obviously a big boost for us but I think we just weren’t able to capitalise on it,” he said.

“We never really built on it and, in the end, we paid for it.

“Even before half-time I thought they were getting on top and we knew we had to play better in the second half.

“But we weren’t good enough, we gave possession away, we didn’t keep it and we didn’t create enough chances. ??

“If you give him chances, Nikica will score – he’s shown that. But we didn’t give him very many opportunities today.

“We got a slice of fortune and he was Johnny on the spot for our goal, and he made a couple of chances for himself. But we didn’t really give him much to go off today.”