If Everton are to survive then Goodison Park is key.
That has been the mantra, muttered through sleepless nights, throughout the eternity since Alex Iwobi’s stoppage-time winner against Newcastle last month. But once again the home crowd gave credence to the claim as they roared the Blues on to another memorable victory over a Manchester United side that crumbled on Merseyside.
There was a fear a Saturday lunchtime kick-off was the worst timing for the latest so-called cup final for a club with painfully few cup final appearances over recent decades. It was thought this was a game best-suited to being played under the lights - the conditions in which Everton put up such a courageous performance against Manchester City before being thwarted by awful officiating.
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Yet as Goodison basked in spring sunshine almost 40,000 Blues turned up and gave it their all. The effect was obvious.
In a game between two sides who, for too long, have been lesser than the sum of their multi-million pound parts, the crowd urged Everton over the finishing line. Hungry for a performance to offer hope of better things to come, they put aside their anxiety and spurred on those in blue, while snarling and intimidating a rival set of players whose fragility this season has been as obvious as Everton’s.
Much of the talk before the game was of the importance of the first goal. For 25 minutes it was not clear which way that would go.
After a bright start Everton resorted to recent type. The nerves and anxiety began to creep in as Man Utd controlled the ball. Yet for all the talent in red, the biggest threat came from that most familiar source - individual errors.
Twice Jordan Pickford made important saves as Everton conceded possession cheaply in dangerous positions. Then it came - a moment every bit as important as Iwobi’s 99th-minute winner the last time fans crowded into Goodison Park.
Richarlison advanced down the left and pulled the ball back to Iwobi, who did enough to ensure the clearance did little other than slip into the path of Anthony Gordon. His shot took a wicked deflection off Harry Maguire and wrong-footed David de Gea. The hands of the United players slumped to their knees as the crowd erupted and Gordon slid to his before being mobbed by the impressive Iwobi.
The goal settled Everton. Pickford was vocal, Fabian Delph broke up play and, when in possession, attempted to release Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison and Gordon.
Ben Godfrey slid in to clear as Jadon Sancho flashed a shot across goal, but then Everton fought back, De Gea tipping over a deflected Richarlison effort and Allan hammering into a crowd of players as the corner that followed broke loose to him.
Despite pressure late in the first half, the Blues held on to go into half-time ahead and buoyed by the cheers of the home crowd.
As the second-half began Everton avoided calamity when a Bruno Fernandes ball skipped past Marcus Rashford and wrong-footed Pickford only to run wide. But then Gordon spun on the ball and sent Paul Pogba into a sprawling lunge that energised the crowd and saw the Frenchman enter the book.
The introduction of Juan Mata helped Man Utd seize more possession in the home team’s half but it was Everton who still looked the more threatening as Richarlison and Gordon bubbled and fizzed in a game that became increasingly frenetic.
When Pogba forced Pickford into a diving save 10 minutes from time, it highlighted how precarious Everton’s lead was. It also showcased the difficulty the away side was having in its attempts to break down a defence that fought for everything, Godfrey using this 90 minutes against one of football’s greatest aerial threats as the perfect opportunity to make up for the late heartache caused in midweek by his tangled clearance.
As the final minutes trickled by, Everton were not hanging on. This was not a backs-to-the-wall performance. Nor was it a vintage display.
But as the clock ticked down it was, for once, Everton’s opponents who felt the pressure - as shown when, frustrated, Ronaldo hammered the ball at the dug out and picked up a yellow card. He then forced a huge late save from Pickford, a save that could be as big as any goal scored this season by a player in blue. Yet, unlike those nervous minutes before the final whistle against Newcastle, added time today was not a stressful, anxiety-filled hell.
On Grand National day the noise that met the conclusion surpassed anything those down the road at Aintree will be able to muster as their favourites gallop down the final straight. It was a roar of relief, a release of tension. Maybe even some pride.
This team is up for the fight. And Goodison Park remains a powerful weapon in a relegation battle that is not yet over. The result means, no matter what happens elsewhere this weekend, Everton will not fall into the bottom three.
In a season in which positives have been hard to come by, that is a significant boost going into a 10-day break that ends, crucially, with another game in L4. And that one will be under the lights.
