Everton manager Sean Dyche will allow his players to briefly enjoy their escape from relegation but he has already laid down the law that major changes are needed at the club.

Abdoulaye Doucoure’s 57th-minute thunderbolt gave the Toffees a 1-0 win over Bournemouth and the victory which ensured they stayed up and extended their stay in the top flight to 70 successive seasons.

For the second consecutive season there was a pitch invasion at the final whistle – although nowhere near as many numbers joined in as 12 months ago when safety was secured with a game to spare.

There was a feeling inside the club that they did not want to be seen to be celebrating avoiding failure and that probably came from Dyche himself.

“It’s a horrible day for all concerned, there is no joy in it for me other than getting the job done,” said the former Burnley boss, who only took over in late January.

“I came in here to change a mentality and I think there have been signs of that. There is still more to go.

“I said to the the players ‘We shouldn’t be here. Enjoy this today and you’ve earned it but at the end of the day it has got to change’.

“There is no point in sitting on it and saying ‘Look how great we are’ because it is not like that.

“There is loads to change here and a lot of work to be done but it was a big step to secure it.”

Dyche was able to speak from a greater position of strength after avoiding what would have been only the club’s third relegation in their 145-year history.

That gave him the confidence to dish out some home truths in his post-match press conference which he had been reticent to do so previously for fear of creating more instability and detracting from the task in hand.

“Don’t think I thought this was an easy fix because it is not, far from it,” he added.

“It’s a big club, make no mistake. Big history, big club, but we are not performing like a big club. We have to find a way of changing that. This is two seasons now.

“I’ve played my little part in two seasons of this but there is a massive amount of change to build to a new dawn, a new future, a bigger future if you like.”

That future is likely to see him make significant changes to a totally unbalanced squad which somehow avoided relegation despite playing the whole season with their main striker – Dominic Calvert-Lewin – featuring in less than half of it and his back-up – Neal Maupay – managing just one goal (in September) in 29 appearances.

Asked if he would have to sell players, with the club having made more than £430m of losses in the last four years, Dyche added: “There’s a chance. I’ll find out about that.

“There’s not been any depth, there have been peripheral talks based on ifs, buts and maybes but that will come over the coming weeks when we find out the truth of what we have got, what we can do, what we can’t do.

“We had to get this (safety) sorted out, we’ve got it over the line. It was absolutely the key focus. Now it is time to immediately re-focus on the rest of it.”

Bournemouth boss Gary O’Neil was disappointed not to have got something from the game.

“I thought we were the better side and had control for the most part but there is still a lot to progress on,” he said.

“We knew we were coming into a tough atmosphere against a direct team and I thought the lads stood up to it well. We maybe didn’t create enough.

“We maybe got a little too desperate towards the end but there was a lot there I liked. It’s just a shame we didn’t score, I always thought we would get one.”

Abdoulaye Doucoure’s goal saw Everton stave off the threat of relegation on the final day of the Premier League season as Leicester and Leeds suffered the drop.

With the title and top four already sewn up, all eyes had been on the battle at the bottom and the fight for European places.

Here, the PA news agency looks at five things from the final day of the season.

Dyche delivers for Everton

Sean Dyche was perhaps not a fashionable appointment when Everton turned to him after Frank Lampard’s exit, but he has done enough – just enough – to keep the Toffees in the top flight after Sunday’s 1-0 win over Bournemouth. One of Dyche’s biggest decisions was to restore Abdoulaye Doucoure to his starting line-up, and it was the Mali midfielder who got the all-important goal at Goodison Park. Dyche’s experience in battling at the bottom helped the club keep their heads amid the pressure. Given their financial issues off the pitch, survival seems seismic for Everton. A big summer awaits as fans continue to call for change at board level, and a Premier League investigation into potential breaches of profit and sustainability rules looms. But solving those issues should at least be a little easier as a Premier League club.

Reality bites for Leicester and Leeds

As Everton breathed a sigh of relief, Leicester and Leeds had the bitter taste of relegation on the final day. For Leicester, the drop into the Championship comes only seven years after their magical title-winning season, the scale of the decline in the last 12 months startling. Their failure to replace Kasper Schmeichel and Wesley Fofana already seemed a major oversight even before injuries hit, and the board must take responsibility for their failure to invest in the squad. With several players out of contract this summer, a major rebuild is in prospect. Leeds also need a reset. They only narrowly avoided the drop last season, but have never found an identity since the exit of Marcelo Bielsa more than a year ago.

Passports out for Villa

In a season when there has been a record number of managerial sackings with 10 clubs making a change, three of them more than one, the most dramatic impact has been the one made by Unai Emery at Aston Villa. The Villans took only nine points from 11 games under Steven Gerrard, but Sunday’s 2-1 win over Brighton secures seventh place and European football for the first time in 13 years. They have gone from a side that were facing a relegation battle to one who have finished 17 points better off than their previous campaign. Given the Spaniard’s proud record in Europe – he is a four-time winner of the Europa League – perhaps they should plan for a long run in the Europa Conference League.

Over and out from Xhaka?

Granit Xhaka has had his troubles at Arsenal, having once been booed off the pitch amid a sometimes fractious relationship with the club and the fans, but he was serenaded on Sunday. The 30-year-old has a year left on his contract and has been strongly linked with a move to Germany as Arsenal plan midfield upgrades. Xhaka scored twice in Sunday’s 5-0 rout of Wolves, taking him to 10 goals in a season in which Arsenal gave fans real belief they could challenge for the title. If this was the end, Arsenal will feel very different about seeing him go than they once might have.

Big questions for Spurs

Tottenham enjoyed a 4-1 win over Leeds on the final day but it was not enough to get them into Europe as they missed out on qualification for the first time since 2008-09. In a summer in which Daniel Levy must again find a new permanent manager, that is a major blow. Harry Kane scored twice at Elland Road, but they could prove his final goals for the club as he enters the final year of his contract, surely considering his options given his desire to be challenging for silverware. Kane has once again reached 30 goals but he has done it in a malfunctioning side, and the England captain will know he is worthy of better. Whether or not Tottenham can again convince him they are capable of offering it to him remains to be seen.

Abdoulaye Doucoure scored the most important goal of his career and possibly Everton’s history to save the side from relegation with a 1-0 win over Bournemouth.

His powerful 20-yard strike, a bolt from the blue, was enough to extend the club’s top-flight stay to a 70th successive season but for long periods that proud record appeared in doubt.

But Doucoure’s 10th goal for the club capped a remarkable turnaround in four months for the Mali international who was training on his own in January after a fall-out with former manager Frank Lampard.

Five days after having his contract extended by 12 months – and with his side just over half-an-hour from heading into the Sky Bet Championship – he delivered when it mattered most and in a way the club can never adequately repay him for.

But it still required a clearance from Conor Coady under his own crossbar and a good save deep into 10 minutes of added time from Jordan Pickford to keep them safe after it initially looked like the Cherries’ second-choice goalkeeper Mark Travers would play a key role in sending the Toffees down.

The home side had started the most significant day in their 145-year history two points outside the drop zone but with Leicester winning at home to West Ham they were heading for only their third relegation and first since 1951.

Then, their top-flight exile lasted three years and the nightmare scenario was that there had been little to suggest over the last couple of seasons another absence would have been any shorter.

Everton had been in the last-day, last-chance saloon twice before in 1994 and 1998 but on both of those occasions their fate was not in their own hands.

In 1994 they beat Wimbledon 3-2 – coming back from 2-0 down – with rivals Ipswich, Sheffield United and Southampton faring worse and four years later they bettered Bolton’s result at Chelsea to survive.

But the stakes seemed much higher on this occasion, and with a new 52,000-capacity stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock due to open for the 2024-25 season this was potentially the last Premier League game at Goodison Park.

However, they are not out of trouble as the club have posted losses in excess of £430million over the last four years and have an outstanding Premier League charge for breaching profit and sustainability rules.

But for now survival, and the relief that brings, is enough.

With no fit full-backs, Sean Dyche was forced to start for the first time in his tenure with a back three, which at least utilised recognised centre-halves in Yerry Mina, Coady and James Tarkowski.

The men outside of them, however, were midfielder James Garner and winger Dwight McNeil and while the former coped relatively well on the left flank, McNeil, more accustomed to running forward, struggled to cope with David Brooks going the other way.

Up front, winger Demarai Gray found it tough adapting to the central role as, unable to hold up the ball, he resorted to trying to win cheap free-kicks but it was a ploy referee Stuart Atwell regularly saw through.

Gray, who had an early rising drive just over, also found being a striker tough in terms of his positioning as when Doucoure drilled a cross into the six-yard area, he was 10 yards too deep waiting for a cutback on the edge of the box.

Travers, only in the side due to Neto’s absence due to personal reasons, then came to the fore as he tipped over Idrissa Gana Gueye’s powerful strike, parried another long-ranger from the Frenchman and then clawed away Garner’s looping shot in first-half added time.

In recent home games around the half-hour mark, Everton’s initial fire had burned out and opponents claimed the upper hand but on this occasion it was bad news from the King Power Stadium which took some of the wind out of their sails.

Bournemouth looked like they were just biding their time and Marcos Senesi stabbed wide from a corner and Mina dived in to deny Dominic Solanke after Brooks had robbed Tarkowski.

Gray’s weak close-range header being scooped away by Travers six minutes into the second half only increased the sense it was not going to be Everton’s day until Doucoure smashed home a drive after a weak header dropped to him.

Crucial interventions from on-loan Wolves and former Liverpool defender Coady and then Pickford from substitute Matias Vina saw them scrape home and sparked the inevitable pitch invasion after relegation was avoided for the second successive season.

Everton manager Sean Dyche has tried to keep things consistent this week as the club head into arguably the biggest game in their history.

The Toffees need to match the results of Leicester and Leeds, who are both inside the relegation zone, in order to extend their stay in the top flight to a 70th season.

There have been no rousing speeches or trying to artificially boost player morale ahead of the visit of Bournemouth as Dyche does not believe that would not make as much difference as reinforcing the same messages he has been giving since taking over from Frank Lampard in late January.

“I think all games are important but it stands to reason with it being the last game and what’s on it that of course it is a massive game,” he said.

“A lot of these players were here last season in a similar position so I think they are aware of it. It comes down to a big performance on Sunday.

“But I don’t have to emphasise that: I know it, the players know it, the fans know it, so we go into it open-minded.

“I don’t think positivity can win you football matches, performances win you matches.

“Inner confidence is a different thing but I’ve always been confident with the group, we go into every game confident so that doesn’t change.

“I think I have a good measure of what it is to be a manager and a player and the feeling in the group is consistent from myself and the staff, that’s all I try to bring.

“The consistencies I talk about are in performance, the mentality to perform, and then clarity. Consistent level of behaviours on and off the pitch I think pays you back.

“There will be some key pointers about the team and the way we perform of course but we will stick to the level of performance we expect from the players and the level we expect in training.”

Everton have a two-point cushion over 18th-placed Leicester but an inferior goal difference so only a win will guarantee safety, although as long as the Foxes and Leeds do not get a better result then the Toffees will be safe.

Home advantage will be key for all three teams but the pressure on the game is huge and, even if backed by a raucous Goodison Park, Dyche knows he will have to lean on senior players despite a large number of holes in his squad due to injuries, with striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin and defenders Nathan Patterson and Ben Godfrey all added to the unavailable list.

“We have worked hard to get in this position; two points in front doesn’t sound a lot but it is at this stage of the seaosn – but only if we capitalise on it,” added Dyche.

“With the senior players it is more about their experience.

“It’s unlikely unless you really have to you put a young player into a situation like that – we’re not in a position quite where we have to – but it’s fair to think a couple of the young lads will be involved in the squad.”

The effect of relegation on a club which has posted cumulative losses of over £430million over the last four seasons – and with a new stadium more than half-built – is almost unthinkable for a club which has enjoyed such a long spell in England’s top division.

But the repercussions of not avoiding the drop is not something Dyche is thinking about just yet.

“I’m not worried about that at the moment, trust me the game will be the focus,” he said.

Everton manager Sean Dyche insists he has no problem with the relegation-threatened club potentially already looking for his replacement.

The former Burnley boss arrived late in January as Frank Lampard’s replacement with the challenge of avoiding the drop.

Things have not gone entirely to plan with the Toffees just two points above the relegation zone, although their fate remains in their own hands as they seek to extend their stay in the top flight into a 70th season by matching the results of Leeds and Leicester.

And reports this week suggested Everton were already thinking about what comes next.

“It’s fair to say ‘interesting’ reports, but I don’t know where they come from,” said Dyche.

“At the end of the day, good businesses should be succession planning. I’ve got no problem with that, even if that were true.”

Everton go into their relegation-decider at home to Bournemouth without striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin or defenders Nathan Patterson and Ben Godfrey.

“They won’t be fit. We haven’t had Dom for two-thirds of my time here. We have still won games, still got points on the board and performed,” he said.

“Patto has come into the side more latterly and performed well. We lose him as well.”

Dyche holds out some hope Vitalli Mykolenko – his only remaining full-back on either flank – could return after a two-match absence.

“He’s a bit better so we will see how he reacts tomorrow to training today,” Dyche added.

Dyche was already without Seamus Coleman, Ruben Vinagre, Tom Davies and Andros Townsend so more injuries just increase the pressure in an already-tough atmosphere on Sunday.

“I think it is part of being a professional footballer. You have to use the feeling in the stadium to your advantage and I think we have a decent experience level for the ups and downs of football to understand that,” added the manager.

“We want players to focus on the game, which is not as easy as it sounds, but focus on the game and the idea and don’t worry about the noise. That’s the clear intention.”

Everton and England midfielder Izzy Christiansen has announced she will retire from football after the Toffees’ season finale against former club Manchester City on Saturday.

The 31-year-old started her senior career with Everton in 2008 and went on to represent Birmingham, Manchester City and Lyon before returning to Merseyside three years ago.

Christiansen won the Women’s Super League and FA Cup during her time at City, plus the Continental Cup twice, while at Lyon she was part of the side that claimed Champions League glory in 2018/19.

The highlight of her international career was being involved in the SheBelieves Cup triumph in 2019 and she finishes with 31 caps for England, scoring six times.

She wrote on Twitter on Thursday morning: “I have something I would like to share with you…I am announcing my retirement from international and club football at the end of the season.

“To all of the football clubs that have trusted me; Everton, Birmingham City, Manchester City, Olympique Lyonnais and finally here again, Everton; Thank you. To representing my country, there’s no greater honour. Thank you.

“What I have achieved is beyond my wildest dreams and being able to choose this ending is something very special. As a young girl kicking a ball around the school field, I had no idea my future would look like this. Dream big.

“Manchester City Academy stadium on Saturday couldn’t really be a better ending. In my home city, on some beautiful turf where I played some of my best football. I’m very excited to reveal what’s next in due course.”

Everton have activated their option to extend the contract of midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure by 12 months.

It represents quite a turnaround in four months for the Mali international who, in the latter days of Frank Lampard’s reign, was training away from the first-team squad after a disagreement with the then Toffees boss.

Having been brought back into the fold when Sean Dyche was appointed in late January, the 30-year-old has scored four goals – ending a drought dating back to September 2021 – in his last nine games, including two in the crucial 5-1 win at Brighton earlier this month.

“Everton can confirm the club has activated the option to extend Abdoulaye Doucoure’s contract until the end of June 2024,” read a club statement.

The fight for Premier League survival reaches its climax on Sunday with three clubs still scrapping for their top-flight lives.

Two of Everton, Leicester and Leeds will join already-relegated Southampton in the Sky Bet Championship next season on what is set to be a dramatic final day of the campaign.

Here, the PA news agency takes a look at what each club needs to happen if they are to avoid the drop.

Everton

Opposition: Bournemouth (h)

Position: 17th

Points: 33

Goal difference: -24

The equation is simple for the Toffees: win and their fears are over regardless of what happens elsewhere. Anything less could prove fatal.

A draw would open the door for Leicester to leapfrog them on goal difference with a win, while Leeds could also overhaul them on goals scored with victory by three or more.

However, Everton would be safe even in defeat if both the Foxes and Leeds failed to win.

Leicester

Opposition: West Ham (h)

Position: 18th

Points: 31

Goal difference: -18

Victory is the only option for Dean Smith’s men and even then, it might not prove enough.

Leicester also need Everton not to win – defeat for the Toffees would keep them up by a point, while a draw at Goodison would edge City to safety on goal difference.

Leeds

Opposition: Tottenham (h)

Position: 19th

Points: 31

Goal difference: -27

Like the Foxes, Leeds must win and even then, they would have to keep their fingers crossed that both Everton and Leicester did not.

In the event that Everton drew, they would need to make up three clear goals to leapfrog them.

At the same time, Sam Allardyce’s men would have to achieve an improbable goal swing – they head into the weekend nine worse off – to edge past Leicester if they managed to beat West Ham.

Leicester boss Dean Smith believes his side have piled the pressure onto Everton after seeing his team set up a dramatic final day of the Premier League season with a battling draw at high-flying Newcastle.

The 2016 champions will head into Sunday’s home clash with West Ham knowing even victory might not prove enough to keep them in the top-flight, but having piled the pressure on rivals Everton and Leeds.

If the Toffees win at home to Bournemouth, both City and Sam Allardyce’s side, who host Tottenham, will be relegated regardless of their results.

But a draw at Goodison Park coupled with a Leicester win would see the Foxes survive by virtue of goal difference and Smith believes they have put the heat on Everton.

“I think we have because if they draw and we win, we stay up. I did say it might be down to goal difference,” Smith said.

“But we’ve got a tough game against West Ham, who have just qualified for a European final and have got a very good manager who’s a friend of mine, David Moyes, who I have got a lot of respect for.

“He’ll make it, certainly, a really tough game for us. We hope now that we can get to the King Power and if fortunes go our way…

“We have taken it to the last game, we’ve made Everton have to win if we win ourselves.”

The need to win – something City have done on only eight occasions to date in the league this season – means there is no margin for error on Sunday with two points currently separating them from the final safe spot in the table.

However, Smith will not adopt a gung-ho approach to the task.

“No, because if you chuck everything, they have got good enough players – they’ve just qualified for a European final – that they could open some doors against us, and we can’t allow that,” Smith added.

“We have to make sure that we play a balanced performance to make sure we don’t give big chances away, but go and create some.”

It was a very different balance on Tyneside, where Smith admitted he had set up simply to avoid defeat by a team chasing and ultimately securing Champions League qualification, although the visitors might have emerged with three priceless points had Nick Pope not made his only save of the game to keep out Timothy Castagne’s stoppage-time volley.

“Have I gambled with Leicester’s future? No. I am a bit of a risk-taker, but that wasn’t a gamble,” Smith said when asked about his approach.

“If I came here and went at Newcastle, we could have been beaten four or five. It wasn’t a gamble.

“We kept a clean sheet, which was what we needed to do. We need to score, which we know we’ve got our problems with.”

Everton have entered an exclusivity agreement with American firm MSP Sports Capital as they look to secure an injection of new investment, the PA news agency understands.

It is understood that, while a deal over funding is yet to be concluded, talks between New York-based MSP and the Toffees – who had also been speaking to 777 Partners – are progressing well.

Seventeenth in the table after the weekend’s action, Everton play Bournemouth at Goodison Park next Sunday as the battle for Premier League survival goes down to the final game of the season for Sean Dyche’s men.

The Merseyside outfit’s new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock is currently under construction at a cost of £760million.

Figures from MSP were present at Goodison when Everton lost 2-1 to Southampton in January.

MSP and 777 Partners, another American company, were then understood to be parties being spoken to after Everton owner Farhad Moshiri in February said he was in talks with “top investors of real quality to bridge a gap on the stadium”.

Sean Dyche fired a warning to Everton’s relegation rivals and vowed his side are alive and kicking ahead of ‘Survival Sunday’.

The Toffees’ last-gasp 1-1 draw at Wolves on Saturday saw them grab what could be a priceless point, with Yerry Mina equalising seconds from the end of nine minute of stoppage time.

Leeds’ 3-1 defeat at West Ham on Sunday left the Toffees two points clear of the Premier League’s bottom three, although if Leicester beat Newcastle on Monday the Foxes will go above Everton on goal difference.

Everton host Bournemouth in Sunday’s finale but boss Dyche believes their battling point at Molineux proves his side are up for the final fight.

“It sends another message that we’re alive and ready, we’re taking it on,” he said.

“We’ve had a few question marks over ourselves and things that have got away from us, but there’s been a lot of good.

“I’ve reminded the players, there are a lot of good players. They are seeing through the challenges, which I’ve spoken to them at length about.

“See through the noise, forget about that. Look at what’s around us, look at the players we’ve got. I was pleased with them on Saturday, not just for the bigger situation.

“A point doesn’t sound a lot – maybe at this stage it is – but also their performance, the will and demand.

“It’s not always about tactics. It can be, but it’s about the will and demand of a group. That was on show to get something out of a game which looked like it was going away from us.

“The consistency of my message to the players has been very similar. Generally there have been tactical and personnel tweaks but the underlying message has been very consistent. The mentality has got stronger and stronger, particularly away from home.

“I think there’s been an obvious shift, but it means nothing unless we take care of ourselves next week.”

Everton went into stoppage time trailing to Hwang Hee-Chan’s first-half opener, but Mina scored with six seconds left of the initial nine added.

It still means their fate is out of their hands until Leicester finish against Newcastle on Monday and Dyche knows it will be difficult to keep his players away from the distractions this week.

He added: “It’s not very easy nowadays because there’s media everywhere. Everyone’s a journo now, it’s not just you guys (the press).

“Everyone with their phone, everyone who wanders around the Trafford Centre. Everyone has an opinion on something, but it’s part of being a modern footballer, manager or coach. It’s the way it is, you adapt. We all know it’s there.”

Boss Sean Dyche called for one final push from Everton after they snatched a dramatic point in their fight for survival.

Yerry Mina’s last-gasp leveller earned a 1-1 draw at Wolves as the Toffees continued to cling to their Premier League status.

The equaliser, in the ninth minute of stoppage time, cancelled out Hwang Hee-chan’s first-half opener.

But if Leeds beat West Ham on Sunday, they will move above the Toffees and push them into the relegation zone – Leicester can also overhaul them with victory at Newcastle on Monday.

Everton – two points above the drop zone – host Bournemouth on the final day of the Premier League season but face a nervous wait to see if they will start the game in the bottom three.

“I was really pleased with the mentality of the players. There’s no excuses from me, no excuses from them,” said Dyche, who confirmed Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Nathan Patterson suffered hamstring injuries.

“This is the challenge right in front of us. I told them that at half-time. It’s not about shapes and tactics, it’s about mentality.

“I’m really pleased for them, we all got the reward for putting in a proper shift and trying and never losing the belief we could score.

“We need it for next week, quite obviously, but it’s a mentality which has grown and I’m very pleased with that side. It shows a strong sign of what the group has become.

“There was a lot of noise around the club (when Dyche arrived in January) and we calmed that a little bit. There was a lot of noise about the team, we missed some important players – one being Dom so there was a lot of noise about him.

“There have been a lot of challenges, I’m not bothered about making excuses. So what can we do? It wasn’t about ‘woe is us’ it was about ‘what can we do to affect this game?'”

Everton started well with Calvert-Lewin twice going close before getting caught on the break for the opener after 34 minutes.

Abdoulaye Doucoure’s pass was seized on by Adama Traore who raced 70 yards, brushing off Amadou Onana’s challenge and forcing Jordan Pickford into a smart save – only for Hwang to gobble up the rebound.

Calvert-Lewin, who had been battling a groin problem, then limped off in stoppage time to add to Everton’s problems.

From then, it looked like curtains at Molineux as the Toffees struggled to create meaningful chances – with Alex Iwobi firing wide and Daniel Bentley saving from Demarai Gray.

Wolves had a degree of control and Pickford needed to save from Matheus Nunes as the game entered nine minutes of stoppage time.

Everton threw men forward and it eventually paid off in the final seconds.

Gray’s cross was kept alive by James Tarkowski as he challenged Bentley and Michael Keane knocked it back for Mina to stab in from five yards.

“Yes, a lot (of injury time). It was the first time I have seen it in the Premier League,” said Wolves boss Julen Lopetegui, who has guided the team to a mid-table finish.

“It’s done, it was a pity. Nine minutes is a lot but they scored the goal in the time, we have to defend better.

“It’s football, we won at Everton in the last minute and today we lost two points. Maybe we deserved to win more here than there. It wasn’t easy to play this kind of match, against a team who are fighting to survive. It’s a final for them.”

Striker Raul Jimenez was denied a possible farewell appearance as an unused substitute before walking down the tunnel before full-time.

Lopetegui added: “He was not happy but I always try to be honest with the players. You can’t make all the things perfect as a coach. You have to take the emotion out of the situation.”

Yerry Mina’s last-gasp leveller at Wolves earned Everton a priceless point in their fight for Premier League survival.

The defender struck with seconds left to grab a 1-1 draw to give the Toffees hope after Hwang Hee-chan had given Wolves a first-half lead.

Their 69-year stay in the top flight remains in doubt and Sean Dyche’s side could still find themselves in the drop zone before next week’s finale.

Leeds go to West Ham on Sunday before Leicester’s trip to Newcastle on Monday and victory for both would lift them above Everton.

As it is, they sit two points above the Premier League’s bottom three ahead of the visit of Bournemouth next Sunday.

Dyche had told his players to ignore the noise but they struggled for long spells and again lost Dominic Calvert-Lewin to injury.

It will spawn a nervous Goodison Park, which saw its last relegation from the top flight in 1951.

Wolves’ own season of struggle – they were bottom at Christmas – will ultimately end in mid-table comfort, mainly thanks to what stands as seven home wins from 10 games since the turn of the year.

Julen Lopetegui had stressed the importance of the Premier League’s integrity, insisting his team would not roll over with matters at the bottom to be settled.

It was, though, understandable that Everton made the better start as Calvert-Lewin brushed the side-netting before nodding Alex Iwobi’s cross over.

The Toffees needed that urgency and, against a Wolves side containing six changes, they were the aggressors, although they lost Nathan Patterson to injury after 29 minutes.

Mina headed over after Daniel Bentley missed a corner and Everton were on top only to be caught on the break for the opener after 34 minutes.

The visitors were pressing on the edge of Wolves’ box but Abdoulaye Doucoure’s loose pass fell to Adama Traore who turned on the afterburners.

The forward launched into an unstoppable 70-yard dash, brushing off Amadou Onana, and when his shot was saved by Jordan Pickford, Hwang stroked in the rebound.

It was harsh on Everton but it got worse in first-half stoppage time when Calvert-Lewin, who came off in last week’s defeat to Manchester City with a groin problem, limped off.

Demarai Gray replaced him but there was no focal point and any second-half response was limited. Gray highlighted their lack of presence up front when his wicked cross through the six-yard box was missed by everyone.

Wolves had slowly gained control and Pablo Sarabia curled wide before Daniel Podence volleyed off target.

A wayward Iwobi strike was all Everton could muster until Bentley pushed Gray’s drive behind with 21 minutes left but, as time began to run out, there were few signs of a recovery.

Iwobi’s shot deflected wide and the Toffees needed Pickford to deny Matheus Nunes late on.

But they snatched an unlikely point in the ninth minute of stoppage time when Mina bundled in from close range following Michael Keane’s knockback.

Everton manager Sean Dyche insists he puts no significance on being outside the bottom three in the relegation battle until the final day of the season.

Rivals’ results meant even after a 3-0 defeat to Manchester City last weekend the team did not drop into the relegation zone.

A Saturday 3pm kick-off at Wolves means Dyche’s side have the chance to crank up the pressure on Leeds and Leicester, in 18th and 19th place, who play on Sunday and Monday respectively.

Only a third away victory of the season would take the Toffees five points clear and ensure they kept their destiny in their own hands.

It would also leave the Foxes needing to win their final two games while Leeds would require at least four points to survive.

But Dyche is not interested in doing the maths even at this late stage.

“I don’t stare at the league. I stare at the performances, I stare at the group, I stare at the prep, I stare at the strategy, I stare at all these things, the tactics, these are the things I’m obsessing with,” he said.

“It’s not about the league table at this stage. I’ve said it for weeks, the one at the end of the season is the most important.

“Of course we all debate it and look at it during a season, of course we do, but the one at the end of the season, that’s the most important, the one we’re looking to be above the line on.

“I think we’ve just stayed very clear-minded, trying to take away the layers of noise around our group to make sure we’re focused on the game.

“That’s all we look to do, others can do however they wish.”

The Everton manager also tried to play down the significance of playing ahead of their rivals on the penultimate weekend of the season.

“You can look at it either way, I’ve been on either side of it,” he said.

“Last club, this club, whether you feel the game is on the right day or wrong day, that’s just the way it goes. The schedule is what it is, you have to deal with it.

“You have to play regardless of what the challenge is. I’ve always looked at it that way so therefore I can’t change the goalposts from someone else’s point of view.

“From my point of view, whenever the game is, it’s about taking it on.”

Striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin has returned to training after a groin problem forced him off against City and is in contention for Saturday’s squad.