Assistant boss Duncan Ferguson says the “fighting spirit” and “great attitude” in Everton’s squad has been key to them securing two rousing results in the space of five days.

Ferguson watched on as Everton came out on top in an epic Emirates FA Cup fifth-round meeting with Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday night, the Blues ultimately winning 5-4 in extra-time to book a first quarter-final appearance in the competition since 2016.

Everton were behind and twice led in normal time at Goodison Park, only to be forced into extra-time when Harry Kane made a pulsating contest 4-4 with seven minutes remaining.

However, substitute Bernard latched on to Gylfi Sigurdsson’s fine ball forward seven minutes into the added 30 and beat Hugo Lloris to finally land the knockout blow.

A Toffees display full of desire and determination followed Saturday’s 3-3 draw against Manchester United at Old Trafford, when Dominic Calvert-Lewin struck the equalising goal with the final kick of the game.

“They've shown a good spirit, a good fighting spirit about them, good attitude,” said Ferguson. “They keep going to the end - Old Trafford was the last kick of the ball and tonight we've gone to extra-time.

“Fair play to the players, they've dug in and showed a good fighting spirit.

"It was a bit nerve-wracking in the dugout as you can imagine!

“Obviously the defences struggled tonight and we particularly struggled on set plays, which is a wee bit of a worry.

“We're normally quite strong on them but tonight Tottenham did well and they were strong on the counter-attack as well.

“But we're delighted and we obviously congratulated [the players]. They were fantastic tonight, fought right to the end, and to score five goals is brilliant, a great attacking performance.”

Everton’s victory also came despite the blow of losing Calvert-Lewin to injury just 10 minutes into the second half, the striker being replaced by Club captain Seamus Coleman after feeling pain in his hamstring.

Calvert-Lewin had earlier blasted his 50th goal for the Club and 18th of an increasingly impressive campaign.

“Dominic's our main striker up there, he's scored another great goal tonight,” said Ferguson. “Obviously we'd miss him if he wasn't playing but I thought the lads showed good character when he went off the pitch and we still got our goal, didn't we? So, brilliant.

“He [Calvert-Lewin] was complaining about his hamstring when he came off the pitch so he might have tweaked his hamstring but I haven’t got any assessment on him yet. Hopefully it's not too bad.”

Match-winner Bernard was introduced as a 70th-minute substitute in place of Alex Iwobi.

Eight of the Brazilian’s 12 appearances this season have come from the bench and he seized his moment when it came, expertly steering the ball past Lloris for his third goal of the campaign.

And Ferguson - part of the last Everton side to win the FA Cup in 1995 - hopes the nature of Wednesday’s victory can now inspire the team to go on and end the Club’s wait for success in the competition.

“He's a great wee player,” said Ferguson of Bernard. “He comes on there, he makes a great impact, scores a good goal on his left side, the winner in the end. It's a brilliant moment for him.

“You're always going to talk about [winning the FA Cup], aren't you?

“But I don't know about your name being on the cup.

“You've got to work hard, keep on putting in good performances and hopefully when we go into the next round we'll continue to do that.

“I’m desperate for us to get to the final and win a cup for the fans. It's been a long, long time.”