IF ONLY Villa could finish as well as Darren Bent.

Well, they’d better learn pretty damn quickly if England’s new No.9 is to avoid playing international football as a Championship striker next season.

For, make no mistake, while the prolific poacher’s goals are Villa’s beacon of hope in their seven-game survival mission, their habit of conceding late on and throwing away winning positions is endangering their Premier League status.

In the context of the woeful Wolves wake, Villa were vastly improved.

In the context of visiting European outsiders who boasted a good Goodison Park record, a point was a decent return.

And in the context of next weekend’s Newcastle clash, a home win and subsequent four-point haul from two tough games would make the Merseyside mission fairly satisfying.

But Gerard Houllier needs threes rather than ones and with a 2-1 advantage seven minutes from time against a Toffees team missing many big-hitters, full-strength Villa ought to have held on for maximum points – penalty controversy or not.

Don’t forget David Moyes’ men were without Cahill, Saha, Rodwell and Arteta.

And none of their seven substitutes had a minute’s Premier League experience between them.

Other than suspended Ciaran Clark, Houllier had a full compliment of first-teamers to choose from.

Not that fielding a much more experienced defence than against Mick McCarthy’s battlers could prevent Villa’s goals-against column creeping up to a depressing 53 conceded.

This time it was Kyle Walker’s turn to throw in the unforced errors .

Well, his and referee Mike Jones, who got the match’s two biggest decisions wrong.

Walker was caught somewhere between composure and complacency all afternoon and was culpable for Everton’s opening goal.

He had already received an early let-off when his under-strength back-header was seized upon by Jermaine Beckford, whose first-time shot from a one-on-one position was turned around the post by Brad Friedel.

But neither Friedel, nor returning backline bad-boys James Collins or Richard Dunne, could come to Walker’s rescue when the dithering defender was dispossessed on 38 minutes.

Diniyar Bilyaletdinov barged Walker off the ball and released Leon Osman, who turned Collins inside out before squeezing a left-foot shot in via the hand of Friedel, with Dunne’s covering challenge arriving moments too late.

Such is Walker’s gung-ho approach that his swashbuckling raids from right-back have now started to excite and alarm Villa in equal measure.