Jordan Pickford believes things need to change at Everton and has called on his team-mates to realise just how big the club is.
Abdoulaye Doucoure's goal earned the Blues a 1-0 win over Bournemouth on Sunday afternoon, securing the Goodison Park side's Premier League status at the expense of Leeds United and Leicester City.
The win over Gary O’Neil's outfit sparked jubilant scenes at Goodison but crowned a second successive season where the club have flirted with relegation to the Championship after finishing 16th last year.
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The win extended Everton’s 69-year stay in English football's top-tier, but Pickford believes everyone at the club must come up with a plan to ensure they don’t find themselves in this position again.
He said: "Last year was a relief. 2-0 down at half-time to Crystal Palace and taking it down to the final game is never ideal, but it just shows the character we have got in the squad.
"We need to dress it down as a club, as players and staff, the whole collective; we need to see a way to come forward and not be in this situation again. Twice in three years is not ideal, but it shows character."
Asked about what can be done to ensure the Blues aren’t in this position again, Pickford believes some of his team-mates need to realise just how big a club Everton is.
He said: "It is not my decision. All I can do is try my best.
"Help my team-mates out, and all we can do as a bunch of players is give 100% every time we go on that training pitch and realise we are playing for a massive club and what ability we have got as an individual to help the team out, because I think if we believe in that a little bit more, we will give ourselves a better chance."
The England international then added: "It has been a tough couple of years, but being in the dogfight last year and the dogfight this year, I think we can take character from it and belief we could get out of it.
"But we should never be in this situation anyway. Throughout the course of the season, the results and points we have dropped against teams who have come to our patch and taken three points against us, we should never be in this position.
"But on the flip side, you can take that character as a team. The dressing room we have got, we can take belief from that, but we should not be in that position."
Not for the first time this season, Everton relied on those few who have served them so well, particularly Pickford, who superbly saved from Matias Vina as the seconds ticked down in stoppage time.
Asked about the save, he said: "I thought it was an average save. A great strike, but he has hit that well, it makes the save a bit easier than it is."
It was in the 57th minute that Doucoure wrote his name into the Everton history books, and Pickford admits the goal was typical of his side never doing things the easy way.
"It was a boss moment," he said of the goal. "It was a great finish. We always make it very difficult for ourselves, but Doucs has come up with a screamer.
"I would have liked easier goals, and I would have liked the game to be killed off as a goalkeeper and a defence, but we are there to keep a clean sheet, which we did, and we have got over the line at the end."
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