Smith said: ‘‘Obviously there is immense relief, particularly when you consider all the problems we have had this season. Any club would feel the same after such a difficult season.

‘‘If you look at all the other sides down at the bottom struggling, I doubt that any have had the sort of problems we have had to contend with.’’

Everton have had a crippling injury list and huge financial problems, but Smith added: ‘‘I am just glad that we won’t be involved in the dogfight in the last two weekends of the season.’’

But Smith accepted that brave Bradford could have caused his side huge problems had they converted two second-half penalties.

He said: ‘‘You don’t often see two penalties missed by the same side in the same match.

‘‘The first save by Paul Gerrard was outstanding and came at a crucial time in the match after we had just equalised. It really was an important save.’’

He added: ‘‘Gary Walsh also made some fantastic saves too for Bradford, it could have been a very high-scoring game but for the two keepers.

‘‘Bradford have been going for it of late, playing lots of forwards without much regard for defence. And that’s how it should be in their position, but we made a lot of chances and deserved to win in the end.’’

Bradford boss Jim Jeffers admitted: ‘‘We blew it with those two penalty misses. We aren’t the first team to miss penalties and we won’t be the last so I’m not going to blame the lads.

‘‘The first penalty save was outstanding. But we blew it then and then when we got the second spot kick we blew it again. If they had gone in it would have been a different result.

‘‘We have tried to keep things going in recent weeks with a couple of wins, and we battled right to the death in this one.

‘‘We had a real go, battling for each other and we showed that we will be capable of challenging next season to win our Premiership place back.

‘‘We knew when I arrived here that there was going to be no quick fix and we were not in a good position when I joined the club mid-season.

‘‘But we must now look ahead, remember the good things and work to improve them in the future. We need more strength in depth, and we intend to bring in a few during the summer.’’