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Roberto Martinez: Everton have become 'fearful' of home matches
Everton boss Roberto Martinez believes his side have become "fearful" of playing at Goodison Park.
The Toffees have won just three of their last 14 home matches and were beaten 2-1 by Swansea on Sunday.
"We were looking forward to coming to Goodison and enjoying our football, but we can't find a way to do that," said Martinez, whose side have not won a home league game since November.
"We have become fearful and expect the worst."
Everton have won at Goodison in both the FA Cup and Capital One Cup this year, but are without a home victory since beating Aston Villa 4-0 on 21 November.
Since then, they have drawn against Crystal Palace and Tottenham and lost to Leicester, Stoke and now Swansea.
'We need to learn'
Image source, Rex Features
Andre Ayew won Sunday's game for the Swans after a Jack Cork own goal had cancelled out the away side's opener - a penalty from Gylfi Sigurdsson.
Everton contributed to their own downfall as John Stones' under-hit back-pass allowed Ayew to nip in and draw a foul from Tim Howard for the spot-kick.
The central defender also contributed to the second goal, deflecting in Ayew's shot at the end of a move that had begun when Ashley Williams blocked a pass with his arm.
"It is a negative outcome from a fearful attitude," said Martinez. "You can see from the two goals - the penalty and the goal that is a deflection after a previous handball that the referee doesn't spot.
"As a team we need to learn. John is a young man with enormous talent and games give him the chance to assess situations, but we have to anticipate things better.
"We can't be giving away a penalty when we are in control. Everything about it reflected the pedestrian start to the game and that fearful way of performing. We need to make sure that, psychologically, we are ready to play at Goodison."
'We are hurting ourselves'
Image source, Getty Images
The Toffees improved in the second half, but squandered a number of good chances, the best of which fell to Seamus Coleman, who shot over from a few yards out with the final kick of the game.
"The reaction we had in the second half shows the quality that we have and how we should have played over 90 minutes," added Martinez. "That is something we need to change very quickly.
"We are hurting ourselves with results that do not reflect our effort and level of performance over 90 minutes."
"It is very difficult when you have a side with something to hang on to and 11 men behind the ball.
"They showed great discipline and organisation but we created enough chances. The last one from Seamus is in the right spot and the last kick of the game. That shows in football you need some fortune as well and today we had none of that."