McNeil channels Michael Jordan as Everton fight to save the last dance

D wight McNeil preferred to watch The Last Dance rather than endure the stomach-churning tension of Leicester’s draw with Newcastle on Monday. Everton must hope the tale of a monumental last-gasp victory for Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, and not its title, mirrors their Sunday.

Everton last suffered the ignominy of relegation on 5 May 1951. Clement Attlee was prime minister, Harry S Truman was US president, and to stay up Cliff Britton’s team needed a point away to a Sheffield Wednesday side who were in effect relegated. Everton lost 6-0, finished bottom of the First Division and spent three seasons in the second before returning in 1954, remaining ever since.

The 70th anniversary is on the horizon but no one at Goodison Park can contemplate a platinum jubilee right now. The famous stadium may never host another top-flight fixture should Everton fail to beat Bournemouth on Sunday and results elsewhere go against them.

The repercussions of relegation would be seismic compared with 1951 but like then, and unlike final-day escapes against Wimbledon in 1994 or Coventry in 1998, survival is in Everton’s hands after Leeds and Leicester failed to win last time out.

“I love watching football, I’ll usually watch any game, but those two games I just couldn’t watch,” McNeil says of Leeds’ defeat at West Ham and Leicester’s draw, two results that kept Everton out of the bottom three and in control of their destiny.

“I didn’t watch any of the Leeds game, I went out with my missus for the afternoon, and on Monday I decided to watch The Last Dance with Michael Jordan on Netflix and check the result afterwards. That was a relief. It’s in our hands now and we’re at home on Sunday with our fans behind us. We’ve got to take it