Season › 2013-14 › News ''Monkey off our back'' says Jagielka Lyndon Lloyd , 28 December, 0comments | Jump to most recent Phil Jagielka is putting a brave face on the Boxing Day defeat at home to bottom club Sunderland, saying that the fall of that long unbeaten home stand might in some way be a good thing. Everton started the game against the Black Cats just two games away from going a full calendar year without a home defeat for the first time in 41 years but disaster struck midway through the first half when an error by Leon Osman was compounded by Tim Howard's foul on Ki Sung-yueng which conceded a penalty and led to the American's dismissal. The Blues tried valiantly to claw back at least a point but could not surmount the handicap of playing a man short and lost at Goodison for the first time since the end of December last year. “Maybe that's a little monkey off our backs," Jagielka says in the Daily Post, "and we can go out and play well on Sunday, get those three points and climb up the table.” “We're very disappointed but the season is August to May, not a calendar year, and we'll get over that now. “Obviously we didn't play very well in the first half and sort of shot ourselves in the foot with the goal we conceded. “But it shows the character in the dressing room that we created quite a few decent chances and unfortunately for us we came up against a goalkeeper in some fantastic form. We certainly gave it a good go. “Even after Mannone saved the free-kick from Ross Barkley, I still felt we could create a couple more chances or half chances, which we did. “But we just didn't manage to get the ball over the line and in that the boys are disappointed.” About these ads © ToffeeWeb