Somehow, amid the tears, the heart-stopping drama and the ugly protests, Everton saved themselves yet again yesterday. The club's erudite manager, Howard Kendall, has always insisted that professional football clubs finish a season where they deserve to. Maybe, maybe not. Everton have played relegation football for all but a few isolated moments these past nine months and yesterday only stayed up on goal difference, at Bolton's expense.

But they have survived, to prolong an unbroken spell among English football's elite which spans 44 seasons - all of them more successful than the one which closed in such dramatic circumstances.

"I wouldn't want to go through a day like that again," said Kendall, "and for as long as I am the manager here we won't have another day like that, it won't happen again. I have learned a lot over the past 10 months and I know what this club now needs," he said.

The club have had their snout in the mud for more than a decade and, despite being reminded at regular intervals that those who find themselves in holes really should stop digging, they did not do so. One wonders if the penny has now dropped.

Everton's football has been of dubious quality for so long now but yesterday they did at least compete in a manner befitting those who represent a venerable institution.

They began furiously and never let up; for that, at least, they deserve full praise. And, most astonishingly, they claimed the early goal which is the stuff of dreams on days such as this.

Seven minutes in, Duncan Ferguson headed back into the path of Gareth Farrelly, arguably the most abused and least tolerated of Kendall's purchases. Farrelly, a £750,000 buy from Aston Villa, one of the first arrivals in this third coming of Kendall and a hopelessly left-footed player, promptly swept in a magnificent rising drive with his right boot. Clearly this was to be Everton's day.

It was not until the second half that Coventry tried to score. This renewal of appetite made for an interesting transformation. Everton, probably not through choice, sat back and defended, something at which they have proved to be singularly inept all season. The ground fell silent as the Merseysiders courted absolute disaster.

It remained so until the afternoon's final, gripping chapter was being penned. At around 5.30 p.m. the stadium once again became a blur of sound and colour: 38,000 Evertonians were screaming as one, "Vialli". Chelsea had scored against Bolton and the tide had turned.

But there was more. Five minutes from the end Paul Williams was adjudged to have upended the Everton substitute Danny Cadamarteri. Nick Barmby drove his penalty kick too close to Magnus Hedman, who saved marvellously.

For Everton everything was still fine until the 89th minute when Dion Dublin, the centre-forward Kendall tried to buy in his second spell, rose to head home a David Burrows cross.

Another goal for Coventry or an equaliser for Bolton - and the trapdoor would open. It did not, though.

Everton: Myhre, O'Kane, Watson, Short, Tiler, Ball, Hutchison, Farrelly (McCann 90), Barmby, Madar (Cadamarteri 49), Ferguson. Subs Not Used: Gerrard, Beagrie, Bilic. Goals: Farrelly 7.

Coventry City: Hedman, Shaw, Burrows, Breen (Williams 51), Huckerby (Haworth 69), Whelan, Dublin, Telfer (Hall 89), Soltvedt, Boateng, Nilsson. Subs Not Used: Ogrizovic, Boland. Booked: Boateng, Huckerby, Williams. Goals: Dublin 89.

Referee: P E Alcock (Redhill).