In an awful match that saw only striker Wayne Rooney and his defensive colleague Joseph Yobo produce anything like quality displays, Everton saw victory grabbed from them in the final minutes.

They thought that Tomasz Radzinski’s late strike was going to be enough to clinch victory, but Goodison Park was silenced by a messy Boro equaliser that cannoned home off Yobo and Joseph-Desire Job in a frantic game of pinball in the six-yard box.

The outcome meant little to Boro. They are in Europe, cannot reach the Champions League and will not go down. Only personal pride is keeping them going after their Carling Cup triumph.

But Everton failed to take advantage with a sloppy display and still cannot avoid worried glances over their shoulders at the relegation rat-race.

Any argument over whether Duncan Ferguson should have been stripped of the Everton captaincy and even axed from the side for his antics at Leicester were negated by a groin injury that ruled out the Scot. The fact that he may soon have accumulated a six-match ban means he is now unlikely to be seen in an Everton shirt again until the last two games of the season.

Radzinski took his place up front and Alan Stubbs reclaimed the captain’s armband as Everton attempted to make it four Premiership games unbeaten and end any faint thoughts of relegation.

Boro were without Ugo Ehiogu, who injured a foot in training, from the side that battered Birmingham 5-3 last week.

Boro looked the brighter, with a fine run from Juninho and then a couple of efforts from Job – one from distance and the other from six yards out - troubling Nigel Martyn.

Everton failed to make much headway against Chris Riggott and Gareth Southgate, while Danny Mills managed to upset the home fans with his treatment of Kevin Kilbane.

Only Rooney produced any inspiration for Everton and when Southgate needed to go off for treatment for a chest injury the England man found the gap to feed the ball through to Radzinski, who drilled his shot into the side-netting.

Thomas Gravesen had one of those games where he messed up a planned free-kick one moment, then gave the ball away the next, before producing a fine tackle or pass to show what a frustrating player he can be.

He was not the only one to blame. Boro were able to spin the ball around with ease and with little involvement from Everton’s midfielders.

Rooney’s clever running and cheeky attempts to nutmeg Mills were the sum total of Everton’s first-half attacks.

And one move summed up the problem. He gained possession on the left, cut inside and looked for support, arms outstretched in annoyance. None arrived so he changed gear and sped at Riggott before blasting a 20-yarder just wide.

Stubbs then produced Everton’s best effort when he rose to power a header from Tobias Linderoth’s free-kick straight at Mark Schwarzer, with the ball bouncing off the keeper for a corner.

From the corner, Gravesen lifted the ball to edge of the box where Rooney met it with a right-foot volley that bounced down and wide.

Dave Unsworth took over from the injured Stubbs at the break to make his 300th league appearance for Everton.

And the home side at last started to produce more cohesion up front. Radzinski saw a fierce shot bounce off Schwarzer’s chest, but Rooney was beaten in the race for the ball by Riggott.

It was Riggott again who thwarted Rooney when he hurled himself in the way of a Radzinski right-wing cross as the Everton youngster was about to head home from inside the six-yard box.

Boro brought on Doriva for Massimo Maccarone, and then lost their substitute to an injury just a few minutes later, Stuart Parnaby taking over this time.

Everton were devoid of ideas and Boro were happy to try to hit them on the break. Pistone’s poor back-pass almost let in Job – Martyn flying out to block - while Rooney’s runs and effort continued to give his side hope.

But the deadlock was eventually broken from a different source. Yobo, outstanding at the back, broke up an attack and fed Kilbane, whose instant pass dropped into Radzinski’s path.

Riggott looked to be covering, but the 77th-minute drive inside the near post by the Canadian international beat Schwarzer and Everton were ahead.

But the Everton celebrations were short-lived with Boro were level soon afterwards when a corner was not cleared properly and in the pinball that followed in the six-yard box, the ball spun off Yobo, hit Job, and cannoned in for the equaliser.