The last player Sean Dyche turned to may be the one who has saved Everton’s future.
For months, the absence of Yerry Mina was a subject of debate among supporters. As Everton stuttered and stumbled through another relegation battle and the defence leaked goals and the attack lacked penetration, the Columbia international was pitched as a potential solution at both ends of the pitch.
Just as it appeared he may have played his final game for the Blues, Dyche relented. His faith has been repaid handsomely.
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That was the case before Mina scrambled in a 99th-minute equaliser at Wolverhampton Wanderers that might just allow Everton’s players to have the luxury of still being in control of their club’s destiny when they step onto the Goodison Park pitch against Bournemouth. With every minute Mina has played the initial reluctance to trust him has looked more and more questionable.
On Saturday afternoon, the 28-year-old hammered home the folly of that position deep into stoppage time to silence Molineux save for a few thousand Blues who erupted in a cloud of hope, relief and blue smoke.
The final whistle possibly should have been blown before Demarai Gray swung in one final deep ball. The consensus before he did so may have been that the whistle was needed to put Everton out of their misery. Instead the game continued and that Gray cross was met by the head of James Tarkowski, a player who heeded the words on a giant banner in the away end imploring those in Royal Blue to “fight for us”.
The ball fell into a mass of players and Michael Keane, who finished the match up front, somehow scrambled a pass to Mina, who bundled in. It is a goal that offers the Blues a lifeline, though those associated with the club will now watch Leeds United's game with West Ham United on Sunday in a state of terror. While the true value of Mina’s second goal of the season will not be clear for at least 24 hours, that it is valuable is beyond question.
That it required three of Everton’s centre-backs to rescue a point in the opposition box is a central factor in the narrative of the club’s season so far. There could not have been a starker indication of the lack of depth available to Dyche than the sight of Keane spearheading the attack of a club that has spent half a billion pounds on transfers over the past seven years while it fought desperately to save its Premier League status.
It was necessary after 90 minutes that were a microcosm of this wretched season - a campaign of misfortune with injuries, poor recruitment dating back years and an inability to seize the initiative by a team that too often has been lacking in the guile not just to break opposition teams down, but to do what is necessary - however sometimes unpalatable - in the name of self-preservation.
Dyche was forced into an experimental line-up by injuries to his defence but his side was on top until events conspired against the Blues in a disastrous final 15 minutes of the first half. First Nathan Patterson, the only fit recognised first team full-back in the squad, was forced off and then Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who had won his fitness battle to start, limped gingerly down the tunnel. Both suffered hamstring issues that need further assessment to determine the severity.
In between those injuries, Hwang Hee-Chan piled on the misery as he adjusted his body to open the scoring after Adama Traore had burst through Everton’s soft core and forced Jordan Pickford into a diving save that pushed the ball out toward the unmarked Wolves No.11.
If 15 minutes could sum up the Blues' season, this was it. Traore had stepped in on the edge of his own box to intercept an Abdoulaye Doucoure flick. He was free within a matter of strides and such was his momentum only cynicism could stop him. Instead he was allowed free passage through Everton’s midfield and into the away side’s box.
There were shades of goals conceded from Villa Park to Anfield, where opportunities to thwart chances before they truly became opportunities were missed. In this instance both Amadou Onana and Idrissa Gueye were brushed off by Traore when the intelligent, if snide, option would have been to challenge for the ball but accept a booking should it elude the player in blue.
The goal compounded the problems Dyche was already struggling to overcome. For a manager who places great weight in clarity his starting XI was anything but clear to the outsider when it was revealed at 2pm. This was not his fault. He was already without full-backs Vitalii Mykolenko, Seamus Coleman and, though barely used, Ruben Vinagre, as well as makeshift solution Ben Godfrey, through injury. Previous attempts to solve such issues had failed, with Mason Holgate - a centre-back by trade - having struggled on either side of the defence when tried there. Nowhere was that more painful than Selhurst Park, where a stint at right-back ended in an early bath at the hands of Jordan Ayew.
With that in mind Dyche sacrificed his best player of recent weeks, Dwight McNeil, and moved him to the left of the defence. One change sparked a whir of consequences as Alex Iwobi moved to the left of the midfield and James Garner to the right, while Onana returned to the starting line-up. By midway through the second half the injuries made Everton even more unrecognisable as Keane had a stint at right-back and Neal Maupay and Mason Holgate were thrown on. For 53 terrifying minutes the Blues looked incapable of finding a desperately-needed equaliser.
Instead Wolves’ players were serenaded ahead of their summer break as they were withdrawn one-by-one yet still looked more likely to score than the team fighting for survival. And then Gray swung in that ball and Tarkowski, Keane and Mina did the rest.
Molineux was stunned and after the final whistle there was the surreal scene of the club’s end of season awards taking place on the pitch as celebrating Everton supporters provided the soundtrack from the stands. How useful this point is will not be clear for some time. But the Blues' survival hopes are stronger for a late equaliser that will no doubt have stung the relegation rivals desperate for them to fail.
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