The Everton defender wants the Toffees to bounce back after their narrow loss to rivals Liverpool at Wembley and finish above their neighbours in the Premier League
Leighton Baines is urging his Everton teammates to forget their disappointing FA Cup defeat to Liverpool, and focus on finishing above their arch-rivals in the Premier League for the first time since 2005.The Goodison Park side are currently one point and one place above the Reds with just five games left to go.
And after their 2-1 defeat at Wembley on Saturday, Baines is determined that the Toffees will finish above Kenny Dalglish's team.
"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 after their loss to Liverpool, but felt that his team didn’t do themselves justice, despite taking an early lead through in-form forward Nikica Jelavic.
He said: "To go a goal ahead was obviously a big boost for us but I think we just weren't able to capitalise on it.
"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."
Baines was forced to leave the field before the final whistle with a tight hamstring, but is optimistic that he will be fit in time for next weekend’s trip to Manchester United.
"We'll do a scan in the next couple of days. I don't think it's going to be too bad. We'll just have to wait and see."
