West Ham 2-1 Everton: Super sub Callum Wilson rescues hosts with HUGE stoppage-time winner – maintaining Hammers two factors above Tottenham in relegation scrap

If West Ham did things the easy way then they wouldn’t be in this mess.

So when news filtered through that Joao Palhinha had put Tottenham Hotspur in front at Wolves and four minutes later Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall smashed in an equaliser for Everton that plunged West Ham into the relegation zone on goal difference, many supporters wanted to blow out the candles, pop the balloons and go home. This party was over.

But this West Ham side aren’t mentally fragile. Not like Tottenham have proven to be.

And so fans stayed. The rallying cry from club legends, the manager, captain Jarrod Bowen, it was heeded by thousands in a fanbase that are no stranger to leaving in their droves due to being let down by those on the pitch.

The gladiatorial roar rang around the London Stadium with eight added minutes illuminated on the fourth official’s board. Nuno Espirito Santo still a figure of remarkable calmness. Inside his stomach will have been doing the same cartwheels those in the stands were suffering from.

Then it arrived. That moment. The one that thousands of West Ham fans may look back on as the moment that saves their Premier League status.

Caution firmly thrown to the wind, El Hadji Malick Diouf galloped forward before whipping in a cross in hope rather than expectation.

At the far post there was Bowen, who had teed up Tomas Soucek for the first with a brilliant corner, who managed to elongate every inch of his frame to head it back across where Callum Wilson, on from the bench, converted to put the cherry on top of the cake.

‘Nobody is making it easy,’ Nuno said. ‘It’s going to be a big fight until the end. But the good thing is we don’t give up.’

Look, if you’re going to survive a relegation battle as tight as this one, you need a bit of luck.

West Ham got that when Soucek cleared off his own line after Thierno Barry crashed a header of his own off the bar.

They got that luck again when Mateus Fernandes escaped a handball swipe from behind Barry that VAR, bizarrely, waved away.

‘I was scared!’ Nuno conceded after.

Accidental contact, came the verdict from VAR Michael Salisbury. Everton were incensed – with good reason. West Ham collectively produced a huge sigh of relief.

‘He certainly punches the ball out,’ David Moyes, unimpressed on what was his 63rd birthday, said. ‘Today is the first day I’ve heard the word accidental be used. I thought that word was taken out of the vocabulary.’

There is always the temptation amid a relegation battle to mix things up, introduce gimmicks, in a bid to shake a few cages.

That’s what Tottenham are doing. Roberto De Zerbi hired to be a firefighter. A team bonding meal that fell flat on its face for predecessor Igor Tudor but repeated by the new man. The latest effort is showing players highlight reels from when they were good.

There’s none of that at West Ham.

Nuno wants three things and his route to getting them is doing everything in his power not to panic.

Solidity, commitment, unity. Those are the trio of traits he believes will keep them in the Premier League.

‘The energy from the fans is fantastic and it’s starting to feel good,’ Nuno added. ‘The boys appreciate playing at home and you can see that even when we concede the next move was to play forward and try to get a goal. That’s belief, character… it makes us proud.’

Heading in to this one it was just one league goal conceded here at the London Stadium since February 10. So, you can check off solidity.

Commitment is not in question – you won’t see the pitch for Nuno without it – and so that left unity. Anxiety needed to transform into blind optimism, if nothing else.

It was a tentative start for a West Ham side that was unchanged for the third straight game and when Fernandes was cheaply robbed of possession to allow Everton the chance to break in transition, many supporters did their very best to stifle the groans. Blind optimism, remember.

Dewsbury-Hall scooped up possession, scampered into acres of space ahead of him only to see Dwight McNeil, who he played in, cross just behind Barry, who got all tangled up trying to improvise an acrobatic effort.

The sheer number of home supporters seen checking their phones throughout a tepid first half rather told the story. Events at Molineux felt as crucial as to whatever transpired here.

But by the end, the question was, does it? West Ham are in the driving seat. They were for the majority of this contest and are ahead on points with four games remaining, two of which are at home.

Bowen is in great form. West Ham’s players, and crucially supporters, believe they can and will survive. And it seems Lady Luck is also looking down fondly upon them.

That optimism players and staff were desperately calling for pre-match doesn’t feel so blind right about now.