Penalty Decision Disappoints Boss – Everton Football

But Martinez says Blues must be more clinical.

Roberto Martinez was disappointed to see the Blues denied a penalty as it ended goalless at Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday.

The Blues travelled to South Wales eyeing successive victories following the midweek win over Stevenage, but had to make do with a third straight Premier League draw.

Despite having the majority of possession and opportunities, Everton were unable to find a breakthrough against the Bluebirds, but looked set to have the perfect chance to do so on 41 minutes.

Bursting into the box, Leighton Baines was upended by Gary Medel but instead of pointing to the spot, referee Anthony Taylor awarded a goal kick – much to the frustration of a packed-out stand of Evertonians.

Martinez told evertontv: “The decision is hard to explain really because we all had a clear view and there are probably moments where the referee gets blocked.

“But when the Cardiff player goes to ground and loses control of his body and doesn’t touch the football, obviously you are going to impede the player. Clearly it’s a penalty.

“Leighton was as shocked as anyone in the ground and it was unfortunate because that would have been a big break.

“But overall, the way we defended and the way we stopped Cardiff having any influence on the game, that was very pleasing.

“We were strong, we kept Cardiff very, very quiet and this is a difficult place to do that.

“On the other side, when you get the amount of moments in the final third that we did, we need to be clinical and start scoring goals – because that was the difference that stopped us getting three points.”