In the West Ham game, I said in last week's column that I was prioritising the points over the performance. As the game went on it was lacking tempo, maybe the break went against us and we had our momentum taken away from us.
You were thinking that it would be another draw, another game that's gone by without us taking the opportunity to get maximum points. Where was the goal going to come from?
But what we lacked in the first five games, and what we had against West Ham, was a striker. And that made the difference.
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He had the one bit of quality, the one opportunity that was presented to him. It was so important for the football club, and especially for Frank Lampard, that we got three points - and Neal Maupay made sure of that.
We're playing some good football but we do leave ourselves open at times, so it's good that our defence is fantastic. Nathan Patterson made a vital tackle towards the end, Conor Coady and James Tarkowski covered each other very well, Vitalii Mykolenko was strong in his tackles.
That gives you a great base when you've got a back four who are playing on top of their form and the best of their ability, the opposition have got to work hard to create opportunities. When West Ham had chances it wasn't easy for them.
We've been a soft touch over so many years for sides coming to Goodison Park, giving away opportunities through lack of leadership or desire to close the ball down. You'll give away chances in football matches, that happens, but what the likes of Tarkowski and Coady have made sure is that opposition sides now have to work hard for those opportunities.
Frank will be really pleased that the boys defended as well as they did, but then there's Alex Iwobi. He's just sensational.
That boy is all over the park, his work rate is unbelievable and that goal came from him. He could have stayed where he was, received the ball to make a simple pass - but he drove forward to break the lines and ask questions of the opposition.
We maybe didn't do that enough against West Ham, we played it far too safe. I don't know what was up with some of the players, but they were very subdued and lacked that punch - and Iwobi was the one asking those questions between the lines.
I've said it previously this season, the fans aren't on Frank Lampard's back. They understand what he walked into, the job he had in hand, and he comes across really well.
But I do think it was a huge three points for Frank to have in terms of the outside media. He was getting compared to Steven Gerrard in terms of pressure, who also had a big win at the weekend, and other managers had already left. If you go seven games into the season without a win, these comments start creeping in.
We can build on that now with the international break giving us a huge chance to get players back from injuries, and give players a rest. I know, for example, Anthony Gordon is going away with the under-21s but that mental break from club football should help him.
He's been in the media quite a lot, he's played a huge part over the last six months or so and we've certainly needed him. Now Frank can keep building his term, working on shape, and address those lack of opportunities in games.
There have been a few occasions where we get to the final third and our decision-making, or lack of quality, has let us down. Frank will be working on these moments to make sure they can come as second nature.
We still might think we're not playing with a striker, Maupay was making runs and wasn't being found because we're looking backwards and sideways. Someone has to be brave, especially in that final third. How many crosses or through-balls can we put in, and can you do more in the next game?
We have a counter-attack style and that lack of quality or finesse was letting us down, so I think Frank will be working on that. We're letting these chances go far too often.
The games will come thick-and-fast afterwards, and now the table looks better. Mentally you give yourself a bit of a breath. Before Sunday's game maybe any other manager in our history, even if results haven't gone the way of performances, we'd be panicking a little bit.
But Evertonians know what Frank is trying to do, and know we've been a bit unlucky in certain situations. It's brilliant we finally got those three points though and that's all Evertonians want.
It's something we can build on and hopefully we can put together a winning mentality. A few weeks ago we'd have drawn that game, because we didn't have a striker.
It's frustrating to think about where we might have been if we'd had a striker for the first few games, I'm sure we'd have a few more points. But we can't do anything about that now, we set up a side which gave us the best opportunity.
With Frank, everyone can't wait to get to Goodison, even when we hadn't won a game this season. It's brilliant and it shows how he has turned the whole club around in unity. Hopefully those bits of quality in the future can make the difference, like Maupay's turn and shot on Sunday.
Full time celebrations
Those scenes at full time were great. We got the three points, everyone stayed behind. These players are a great bunch who seem happy, go to work happy.
Trust me, not winning football games and going into work every day, it can be tough mentally. But these lads understood they weren't far away, and they did it against West Ham.
Frank was in charge when the club had to reunite to save ourselves from an unthinkable relegation battle and it's continued. The players have responded to what the fans have been asking for for years. The amount of times in this column I've talked about lack of leadership or desire or will to put your body on the line.
The fans felt disconnected, the fans felt the players weren't showing the best of their ability - because they had quality. Show that work rate and desire, and we'll respond.
We just didn't seem to get the right fit, with players that seemed to be coasting and you can't do that in front of 40,000 Evertonians. This set of players, though, have realised.
Now you're seeing players chasing opponents down for 30-40 yards and he crowd are responding. That's lifting everyone, including the players. When you've got the crowd behind you, it does give you that extra percentage.
It's the closest I think many Evertonians, especially since Farhad Moshiri has been here, have felt connected to the squad and the manager. You can see an identity, we haven't had that for years.
Frank has a mixture of the Everton way and he way he wants to play, and he'd got the personnel to take that forward.
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