Roberto Martinez still enjoying cup success ahead of Crystal Palace visit

Everton boss Roberto Martinez broke with convention and talked about his cup hopes ahead of Monday's Premier League match with Crystal Palace.

The Toffees advanced to the penultimate stage of the Capital One Cup with a convincing 2-0 victory over Championship promotion contenders Middlesbrough this week.

Their reward is a semi-final clash against Manchester City and if Everton are able to go all the way and lift the trophy, it will be the first time they have won silverware in 21 years.

Martinez was still basking in the warm glow of his team's cup run on Friday lunchtime. Usually managers insist on focusing on their next league game rather than a glamorous cup run.

But Martinez was still in the mood to talk silverware after Wednesday's win.

"I think just getting into the semi-final in the manner we did is a good sign," he said.

"We all felt the expectation and atmosphere we created could work both ways: positive in that you embrace it or you feel cagey, feel the pressure and cannot perform.

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 "Our team showed a real enjoyment with what we could achieve and I think we are ready to enjoy that pressure of not having won a title for a long time.

"At this stage you don't expect to get any easy draws but we feel good, are playing really well and are confident of enjoying the two games against Manchester City.

"If you want to go all the way in any cup competition you get to a point where you have to play against the best and clearly City are one of the best in Europe."

Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku's goals have been behind the recent success and former Barcelona forward Gerard Deulofeu was outstanding against Middlesbrough.

"The hardest thing to do is scoring goals and this season we have found an interesting run of form of certain players," Martinez said.

"As a football club we have done incredibly well to assemble this squad. It has taken a lot of work and a lot of scouting."