Everton finally looked like a team making it their mission to stay up at Brighton & Hove Albion but their emphatic 5-1 triumph cannot now be allowed to become a hollow victory.
The many thousands of loyal but long-suffering Evertonians will each have their own personal thoughts over how they felt about their team’s chances of survival but the prevailing mood seemed to be that the 4-1 home defeat to Newcastle United on April 27, the night that Goodison Park gave its all, asked the players to “fight for us” but then saw the team surrender with a whimper was the night Blues feared the lights were starting to go out on their long top flight tenure.
However, this morale-boosting success at the Amex Stadium – as impressive as it was pleasantly surprising – has suddenly breathed new life into Everton’s hopes of avoiding the ignominy of what would be their first relegation in 72 years.
