Beto stepped off the bench and headed home a dramatic late equaliser as Everton salvaged what had looked to be an unlikely draw against vibrant Fulham.

The Blues had laboured though 90-plus minutes of dire and woefully ineffective football and were heading towards a fourth successive home defeat to the Cottagers on the back of Alex Iwobi’s goal but managed to grab a point deep into stoppage time.

Sean Dyche had thrown Michael Keane up front to partner Beto as Everton chased the game and the late push was rewarded when the Portuguese found himself in the right place to convert Ashley Young’s centre.

The pre-match discussion had revolved around the manager’s decision to leave Jarrad Branthwaite on the bench, preferring to stick with the central-defensive partnership of James Tarkowski and Michael Keane in what was an unchanged starting XI from the side that had started at Ipswich last year.

But Everton looked inferior in almost all departments, were out-manoeuvred by former boss Marco Silva’s men for long stretches of this match and though they had the ball in the net for a goal that was chalked off for offside, they were fortunate to go into the break level at 0-0.

Tarkowski allowed Raul Jimenez to control Kenny Tete’s early cross and the Mexican striker’s snapshot was saved by Jordan Pickford and the keeper was called into action in the 25th minute when Vitalii Mykolenko’s awful giveaway let Adama Traore in but Pickford beat his strong shot away and Emile Smith Rowe volleyed Jimenez’s header over the crossbar.

The hosts belatedly started to show some attacking life after the half-hour mark and they put together their best move of the contest thus far. Iliman Ndiaye, Dwight McNeil and Abdoulaye Doucouré and were all involved before Idrissa Gueye smacked the underside of the crossbar with a wonderful shot and Dominic Calvert-Lewin rapped home the rebound, only to be flagged offside.

The two sides then traded blows through the remainder of the first period. Tete shrugged off three Everton players on a long run that ended with a poor shot that he lashed over while Calvert-Lewin’s attempted header back across goal at the other end bounced off Sander Berge.

Jimenez easily turned Mykolenko but saw his effort blocked before Iwobi half-volleyed Traore’s cross over when well-placed while, in between, Everton’s Ukrainian full-back put in a brilliant cross that McNeil could only power into Bernd Leno’s arms.

With Fulham confident on the ball and incisive with their passing through midfield, Everton often paled in comparison, their route-one tactics becoming an increasing source of frustration for the Goodison crowd.

The Toffees’ fans had to wait until the 82nd minute for their team’s first genuine chance of the second half when substitute Jesper Lindstrom’s deflected shot was saved low by Leno.

Prior to that, Everton had survived a scare when Andreas Pereira screwed a shot across goal but then fallen behind with an hour gone thanks to abysmal defending by three of their most experienced players.

Young missed his tackle on Smith Rowe who took advantage of space ahead of him to drive forward and feed Iwobi and with both Keane and Tarkowski backing off, the former Blues player had time to pick his spot with a strike inside Pickford’s right-hand post.

The Everton keeper had to parry a low cross by Antonee Robinson and was fortunate that Smith Rowe didn’t gamble on Iwobi’s volleyed pass across the face of goal shortly afterwards before Jimenez blasted narrowly over with 12 minutes left.

That was Dyche’s cue to make his second change of the afternoon by removing Doucouré and Calvert-Lewin in favour of Orel Mangala and Beto and within 10 minutes, the former Udinese striker had forced a corner with a blocked shot and at least made Leno make a save with a header that was searching out the bottom corner ether side of McNeil's forced withdrawal due to a knee injury.

Beto’s moment to genuinely shine came four minutes into time added on, though. Everton had piled men forward trying to force home a late leveller, Ndiaye’s deep cross fell to Young in space off the back post and with a cushioned volleyed cross he found Beto unmarked to head past Leno before haring off to wildly celebrate.

Clenching his fists, yelling to the heavens and then beating the turf, the emotion poured out of the Portuguese and he left the field at the end with his shirt over his head to mask tears of relief and joy at having seized his opportunity.

For Dyche, the late drama was a reflection of the never-say-die mentality he has instilled in his side but it couldn’t mask the glaring deficiencies in Everton’s performance, which was painfully one-dimensional and, the silky skills of Ndiaye aside, lacking in guile and invention.

The manager will point, however, to another game where his men avoided defeat and which extended the Toffees’ unbeaten run to five matches.