Everton beat Bournemouth 1-0 on the final day of the Premier League to ensure they survived a three-way relegation fight, but the full-time whistle clearly brought a lot of mixed emotions to those inside Goodison Park.
Abdoulaye Doucoure netted the only goal of the game to land the three points which left the Toffees staying up and both Leicester City, who won, and Leeds United, who lost their game anyway, consigned to the drop to the Championship.
And a large number of fans immediately broke past stewards and advertising hoardings to run onto the pitch after the final whistle blew to signify Everton’s survival, with equal parts celebration and relief evident in those initial moments.
Blue smoke was let off inside the stadium as well, as the two sets of players were hurried off the pitch as hundreds ran onto the turf - but any celebratory atmosphere was quickly tempered as large numbers of supporters could be heard immediately starting to boo and chant their displeasure at the club’s hierarchy.
Farhad Moshiri and the rest of the board have now overseen two successive campaigns with relegation on the cards until the final instances of the season, despite huge outlay in the transfer market and multiple changes of first-team manager. And fans, who had already protested against the board at half-time when Everton stood on the brink of relegation, begun once more chanting to “sack the board”.
At the interval, with Everton drawing and Leicester ahead in their match, it was the Toffees who were set to depart the top flight. But that Doucoure strike rendered the Foxes’ win irrelevant - but the majority of home fans did not seemingly want to see their survival as cause for celebration, rather being insistent on change and progress.
Speaking after the match on Sky Sports, Jamie Carragher explained how much the atmopshere towards those in charge had altered between last year’s survival bid and this one.
“There was a feeling last season that people at the club wanted a pat on the back for being part of keeping Everton up, making the decision to bring Frank Lampard in. The reaction from the stands, the majority of supporters were almost screaming and booing the fans who ran on [the pitch] and starting singing sack the board,” he said on Sky Sports.
“Going forward there’s got to be change at Everton, maybe a shareholder to help Moshiri. But in terms of the people on the board the last few years, in the next few days they’ve got to leave their posts and that’s the only way they will get some sort of backing back from the Everton supporters.”
Gary Neville added: “The Everton fans are the best thing about this football club and they’re getting let down year after year.”
