Leighton Baines insists confidence remains high in the Everton camp despite crashing out of Europe against Standard Liege. Baines has taken responsibility for giving away the crucial first-half penalty in the game when he clashed with Milan Jovanovic but, despite the defeat, the full-back is staying positive.
On the penalty, the former Wigan man said: "I was trying to help cover but he (Jovanovic) has seen me coming over to tackle and he's basically been quite clever to get the penalty.
"I couldn't get out of the way in time and that's why I held my hands up to show I wasn't going for the ball.
"Unfortunately, it's just one of those things. It's the first time I've ever given a penalty away in my career and I know I couldn't have picked a worse place to do it. It wasn't the best thing to happen, but you have got to move on from it.
Baines admits it was disappointing to crash out of Europe but he says Everton can take heart from an improved display in Belgium.
"There is no consolation for being out of Europe," he added. "It is so disappointing to have gone out this way, but we have all got to stay as positive as we can."
"It's not been like it was last year. Things are much harder. But I think we played a bit better against Liege than we have been doing and I think there were little signs that we are coming back into things.
"We were speaking on the plane coming home amongst ourselves and a few of us said that we feel much better. There was more confidence and comfort in the way that we were playing and we've got to use that as a positive."
