Some remnants of Everton’s relegation escape were dotted around Goodison Park’s surrounding streets on the morning after the club’s Premier League survival was confirmed.
The clean-up is into its final stages as cans and stale pints in plastic cups are removed on Monday morning. The first fresh pints have started to pour from local pubs come midday, but there is already a sense this corner of L4 has dodged what could have been an unimaginable hangover.
“Relief,” says Paul O’Shaughnessy, 49, when asked what Sunday’s escape meant to him and his family, who are standing near Dixie Dean’s statue on Walton Road. He agrees there was sheer joy in seeing Abdoulaye Doucouré banish visions of the Championship with his sweet right-footed drive, but there is the prevailing sense the club shouldn’t have been in this situation.
