Everton boss, Roberto Martinez defended Kevin Miralles after he missed a penalty against West Bromwich Albion, despite Leighton Baines being the club's regular taker.

Gary Neville, analysing the game for Sky, described the incident as "a scandal". He said: "If he's gone against team orders or manager's orders and selfishly taken the ball, it's one of the most despicable breaches of team spirit you can possibly have. You do not do that at any cost.

The Everton manager, however, attempted to absolve Mirallas of blame but conceded the miss had affected the team's confidence for the remainder of the game, one that extended their dreadful run to one win in 13 matches.

"Kevin took the first penalty against West Ham in the penalty shootout last week," said Martínez. "He felt confident, he has been flying and the West Ham game was probably his best for the club. Leighton is our No1 taker but he was quite happy to let Kevin take it because he felt confident.

"The issue is he missed it. If it had hit the back of the net nothing would have been said. If Leighton had said no and took it, and missed, then an issue would have been made of that as well. It was a key moment in the game but I'm not going to make a big issue out of it."

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