DENIS STRACQUALURSI believes he is now reaping the rewards of a regular place in the Everton first team.

Stracqualursi has scored three times in his last five games after finally breaking his goalscoring duck on his 12th appearance in the 2-1 FA Cup win over Fulham last month.

The Argentine, on a season-long loan from homeland side Tigre, has featured in all bar one of Everton’s 11 games since the turn of the year.

And the 24-year-old is convinced that extended run in the senior team has helped him acclimatise to life in English football.

“When I first got here, it was difficult to adapt to the different style of football,” said Stracqualursi. “But now I’m getting games and getting time, I’m scoring goals and that’s the main thing for a forward.

“I’m very happy with the goal. It’s very important for forwards to score goals for confidence. The main thing, though, is that we won. It’s a team effort.”

Stracqualursi was on target in the 2-0 win over Blackpool on Saturday that put Everton into the FA Cup quarter-finals for the second time in four seasons.

And he said: “We are confident and we are happy that we got to the next round. There’s a lot of confidence in the team and we need to keep it up and take it into the next games.”