Martinez bemoans poor refereeing after Stoke City loss

A first-half penalty from Bojan Krkic proved decisive as Stoke moved above Everton in the Premier League table with a 1-0 win at a rain-swept Goodison Park.

However, the visitors were fortunate not to lose Walters shortly before Bojan's goal, the Republic of Ireland international escaping with a yellow card despite bringing down Leighton Baines when he appeared to be the last man.

Martinez, whose side missed a number of chances, struggled to explain referee Mason's decision to book Walters.

"I'm not saying that you want to be in a position where you rely on referees to get wins, I don"t think we're in a great moment of the season, but I don"t think that anything went in our favour," said the Spaniard.

"The Jonathan Walters decision is a difficult one to understand because it is an infringement and there is no other Stoke defender " it is a clear goalscoring opportunity.

"The penalty I think is soft, but I can understand it.

"We had it with the same referee at Sunderland, so it is a disappointment that the same rule hasn"t been applied well from the same referee."

Turning his attention to Everton's own failings, Martinez urged his players to be more clinical in front of goal.

"I couldn"t fault the attitude and the effort of the players but we didn"t have a real clarity to break Stoke down, which is disappointing," he added.

"Once we conceded the goal we did enough to at least get back into the game in the first half but we missed the chances, but it forced Stoke into a different performance."

Phil Jagielka (stretched ankle ligaments) and Tim Howard (calf) were both replaced at half-time after picking up injuries.

"Getting those injuries disrupted the flow in the second half but I do think we created enough opportunities," Martinez concluded.