In their biggest match of the campaign thus far, United produced an insipid display at Goodison Park to extend their miserable winless sequence at league level to ten matches.

Salt was rubbed into the wounds with news of Southampton's shock victory at Chelsea, piling the pressure upon Leeds ahead of next weekend's similarly huge six-pointer with the Saints at Elland Road.

The only goal of the game came on 64 minutes when Seamus Coleman caught out Illan Meslier at his near post with a shot from close to the right flank in an awful moment for the Frenchman.

It was an afternoon when Leeds failed to muster a single effort on target with their frustrated supporters venting their spleen in the direction of the club's hierarchy on occasions in the second half with chants of 'Sack the board' and '(Victor) Orta, time to go.'

Skubala said: "It is a tough place to come. We knew it was going to be a tough game. Without the ball, we stood up and I think we needed to be better with the ball and the thing we need to work on quite a bit to start creating more chances.

"We dealt with second balls for long periods of the game and knew the type of game they play and they are good at it. That's their way, but I thought we battled quite well, but did not create enough with the ball.

"We have been caught and Illan has been caught off his line. He has been a huge player for us this season and has saved us lots of points. Maybe with his positioning, I need to look back at it. But he's a top player. In these games, these things sometimes get you the wins."

Skubala has taken charge of three games on an interim basis and says that he is planning to lead preparations for the Saints game, as it stands.

He said: "A big coaching week and it's my job to get them prepared for Southampton as much as we can.

"It's just daily taking to the board and have conversations. At the minute, I am planning training for next week for Southampton."

Skubala confirmed that Max Wober came off at the interval with a shoulder injury. The defender carried on after falling awkwardly early on.

He continued: "We lost Max at half-time to his shoulder. He carried on but he was really hurting. He popped his shoulder out which was a big move for us as we lost our left-footer on that side.

"Pascal (Struijk) had a bit of ‘fogginess’ in training yesterday and had to move back on the concussion protocol and could not be involved, even though he trained yesterday. That was difficult.

"Liam (Cooper) was on the bench, but not ready for long minutes and we were making sure we were protecting him.

"I am confident we will get those ones who are close to add to the depth. of the squad to keep moving forward."

Leeds United's Michael Skubala on a poor day at Everton, his future and updates on Max Wober, Pascal Struijk and Liam Cooper