Frank Lampard acknowledged he could do with a win as he attempts to make progress with Everton but spoke of his pride at his team's bravery in the defeat at Old Trafford.
The Blues boss credited his team with a battling performance as they fell 3-1 to Manchester United in the FA Cup, arguing they deserved more from the game. While he was pleased with large parts of the performance, however, he accepted it was ultimately results that mattered the most.
Speaking after a thrilling match, he turned to the season in general, including Everton's league struggle, and said: "Do we need a win? Yeah, for sure... The reality for me is clear. We are in a relegation battle, we were in one for the most part of last season and we are in one again. We just have to fight to get out of it and that is just where we are at at this point."
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His side had fought hard in front of more than 9,000 travelling supporters that backed them to the end. Everton had cancelled out Antony's early goal when Conor Coady pounced on a loose ball in the home side's box when David de Gea misjudged a Neal Maupay cross.
But Coady then scored an own goal in the second half, just moments after Alex Iwobi was stretchered off with an ankle ligament injury. A late Marcus Rashford penalty ended the game as a competition but Lampard's team, which had what initially appeared to be a Dominic Calvert-Lewin goal ruled out for offside, had pushed the hosts until that goal in the final seconds.
Speaking of his pride at the display, Lampard said: "It was a performance of a similar level, possibly better in an attacking sense, than Manchester City. We have had two visits to these two big clubs in a week and we got a draw at City and I think we deserved a draw here today.
"I was really pleased with the spirit of the team, I was really pleased with the bravery of how we played, and the disallowed goal was a great example of that, it would have been a fantastic team goal. Unfortunately we did not get a result but sometimes football can do that to you and, sometimes, individuals of Marcus Rashford's quality can have their moments and it didn't quite go for us."
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