Portsmouth’s Premier League pertion ended with Diniyar Bilyaletdinov’s dying seconds, left-foot screamer beating Jamie Ashdown from 25-yards. Now, they can focus on their quest to cause arguably the greatest FA Cup final upset since Sunderland turned over Leeds United in 1973, by beating the champions, Chelsea, in Saturday’s Wembley showpiece.

Avram Grant’s first requirement to pull off a feat even he considers unlikely after his club’s tormented season was to leave Goodison Park with no fresh casualties, which was achieved from a game that will be instantly forgotten due to the clubs’ inability to affect their closing league position.

Everton bested the opening half, then fell away once the teams turned around for a final 45 minutes of league action. At the start David Moyes’ men slipped effortlessly into high gear, with Mikel Arteta ad Leon Osman calling the moves from central midfield, the latter particularly adept at skipping past feet to allow himself the pass into a colleague.

From this Arteta-Osman fulcrum a flurry of chances were missed. Louis Saha was offered a clear header from Leighton Baines’ cross, but steered over. Arteta had his own chance in space inside Portsmouth’s area, yet the shot proved a back-pass to Ashdown.

The keeper, in for a rested David James who did not travel, later saw a Jack Rodwell header bounced into his hands, after Osman’s dancing boots had allowed him to stroke the ball to Tony Hibbert, for the right-back to unload a swinging cross.

Portsmouth’s entertainment offerings for their travelling and very vocal support had been a miscued Kevin Boateng 25-yarder and little else until the second half, when they scored what appeared a legitimate goal.

Jamie O’Hara, on at half-time, found Anthony Vanden Borre who was being played on-side by Sylvain Distin and he finished from close range.

It was ruled out, though. Much like most will do when considering any notion of Portsmouth achieving a Saturday victory at Wembley. They couldn’t do, could they?

Premier LeagueEvertonPortsmouthJamie Jacksonguardian.co.uk

Everton intensified their quest for European football with a hard-fought victory at Blackburn thanks to Tim Cahill’s 90th-minute winner. Three times the visitors took the lead and they became only the second team to defeat Blackburn at Ewood Park in a league game since the opening day of the season.

Victory for David Moyes’ team narrows the gap to rivals Aston Villa, occupiers of the final Europa Cup place, to a single point for a few hours at least after spectacular strikes from Steven Nzonzi and Jason Roberts twice pegged them back.

In terms of recent form this was a case of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object but the entrance of substitute Yakubu Ayegbeni a dozen minutes from the end proved crucial. First, he nodded in with his first touch and then squared for Cahill to guide in from a couple of yards.

This pair have been two of the form teams in the Premier League’s final straight – Blackburn holding title rivals Chelsea and Manchester United here recently and loath to give up a record of just one defeat in 16 without a predictable scrap. Everton, catalysed by fresh legs since the turn of the year, were on a run of just two league reverses in 20 coming into this contest.

Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce waxed lyrical about the miserliness of his side’s defence in his programme notes. Half-a-dozen clean sheets in their previous 11 matches and indeed three in a row were, he reasoned, the blueprint for Rovers’ rise from the lower reaches of the table.

Yet they were breached with less than 300 seconds on the clock, after the indefatigable Cahill took down Diniyar Bilyaletdinov’s cross in the area, evaded one challenge from Gaël Givet and lost his legs to another from the recalled Ryan Nelsen. Mikel Arteta, hors de combat for such a long stretch of the season, rolled the ball in from the penalty spot to galvanise his side’s pursuit of seventh place.

Everton appeared on course to emulate the achievements of Manchester City and Tottenham here this season until, with 20 minutes remaining, Nzonzi unleashed a firecracker of a shot from fully 30 yards which fizzed across Tim Howard and into the roof of the net.

Moyes threw on Yakubu as a second striker and was rewarded when the striker glanced in fellow substitute Victor Anichebe’s flick-on and then set up Cahill’s decisive intervention. Another replacement Roberts had appeared to have ended Everton’s pursuit of seventh when he volleyed in on the run nine minutes from time.

Premier LeagueBlackburn RoversEvertonguardian.co.uk

The survival prospects of West Ham United and perhaps Gianfranco Zola received a critical lift this afternoon as the substitute Araujo Ilan’s outstanding 86th‑minute header rescued a deserved point at Everton.

David Moyes’s European hopefuls appeared to have heightened the pressure on the beleaguered Italian in the most cruel manner when Yakubu gave the home side the lead for a second time in the 84th minute. Within two minutes, however, Ilan threw himself at Julien Faubert’s cross to score his second goal for West Ham and potentially one of their most important of the season as they strive to avoid the drop.

Everton, as was to be expected, were industrious and dominant in possession yet had hardly tested Robert Green in the visitors’ goal when dreadful defending allowed them to take the lead midway through the first half.

Three times West Ham had the chance to clear Leighton Baines’s deep cross from the left, and three times they messed it up. First, Jonathan Spector headed the cross skywards inside his own area rather than clear it away with any conviction. Manuel Da