Baines hails Everton character after Wigan draw

The Toffees full-back believes his side showed their mental strength by snatching a late point from Saturday afternoon's Premier League clash with Roberto Martinez's side

Everton defender Leighton Baines has praised his side's character after they snatched a point late on during Saturday's clash with Wigan.

The Toffees twice fell behind at the DW Stadium and needed an 86th-minute penalty from Baines to draw level for the last time.

And the Kirkby-born left-back believes the late goal evidenced the Merseyside outfit's mental strength.

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"If you want to stay up near the top end of the league you've got to keep taking points when maybe you're not at your best and it was important that we took a point," Baines told the club's official website.

"It shows that we've got character. There will have been times maybe in the last few seasons where we may not have come away with anything, so it's a decent point in the end."

However, Baines revealed that his team-mates remained disappointed not to take all three points, given their good form of late.

"We weren't quite up to scratch in the first half and we knew we had to get back up to where we've been in recent weeks and I think we did that," he added.

"I thought we were the better team in the second half and we came away with a point in the end. We would've liked more but I thought Wigan did really well as well."