Everton’s winless home run stretched to a seventh game with defeat to Manchester United but what happened on the final whistle felt significant.
After an initial, sharp chorus of boos for the officials who repeatedly left David Moyes and his players confounded, the mood in the giant South Stand turned to defiance and, to some extent, pride. Just like they had done at the end of a battling first half, the home supporters applauded their players off.
The ovation peaked when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, then Jordan Pickford, went to acknowledge that reaction before the home fans left in the stadium roared their team’s name.
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This was another night of frustration and disappointment on the Liverpool waterfront. But it also felt like progress. Yes, Everton lost. Yes, they were missing a cutting edge in the final third. Yes, they still have not won at Hill Dickinson Stadium since that heady early December afternoon against Nottingham Forest.
But they were unlucky on Monday night. They worked hard, they pestered their opponents and subjected them to a barrage of corners and crosses and just could not manufacture the opportunity that would save them.
The reality on the banks of the Mersey was the moment that separated these two sides - and it was just one moment that did so - was delivered by a weapon Everton simply do not have: a £73.7m striker. There was an inevitability about where the ball would end up when the long ball from Matheus Cunha, a £62.5m summer signing, found Bryan Mbuemo, a £65m signing, in space and with only Michael Keane to beat. Keane held up the attacker but could not stop him from laying the ball into the path of Benjamin Sesko, who had burst clear of everyone else in Royal Blue and smashed past Pickford.
That, in a nutshell, was that: Everton were undone by a goal in which three summer signings, bought at a cost of more than £200m, combined to devastating effect. The disparity in resources is well-known and those who ask about some of Everton’s summer buys who did not feature in this performance - Tyler Dibling (£35m), Adam Aznou (£9m), Merlin Rohl (whose loan is expected to become permanent for £18m should Everton stay in the Premier League, which they will) to name three - can ponder David Moyes’ decisions with justification. Man United were still a side of riches when Everton won at Old Trafford with 10 men in November, too.
It would be wrong to ignore what those who were involved produced on the pitch, though, and the work of some of the more contentious of Moyes' decisions - Harrison Armstrong started on the wing and James Garner at right back - was central to much of what was good about this performance.
In the end, Everton lacked incision but not intent. The very first act of the game saw Thierno Barry charge after a Bruno Fernandes kick-off to block Senne Lammens’ punt forward. That set the tone for a frenzied 10 minutes in which the players responded to the latest superb pre-match introduction provided by the 1878s supporter group and South Stand with Dewsbury-Hall, Idrissa Gueye, Tim Iroegbunam and Armstrong all winning big challenges as they hustled and harried those in red.
The start was not perfect. Amid the chaos, Amad met the ball as it ricocheted around the Everton box and forced Pickford into a good save that gave James Tarkowski time to clear it off the line.
But that was the closest Man Utd came and the only occasion when they truly threatened in the first half - Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot both narrowly missed the target from distance but Everton quickly found a foothold and spent the next 40 minutes swallowing up balls into their own half.
Garner led the way as Everton worked to protect Pickford’s goal and with attack after attack breaking down, Moyes’ side looked to find a threat of their own. It was Garner who forced Lammens into his only first half save - a diving effort from a free-kick after good work from Gueye. The home team deserved their applause at the break though. What they lacked in penetration they made up for in determination and, as the half went on, they grew in confidence.
Just like in the last game, the defeat to Bournemouth, they started the second half well, too. Armstrong had a decent chance to score his first senior goal for his boyhood club but shot tamely at Lammens and the goal from Sesko, in the 72nd mate, was precisely so galling because it came with Everton having held the ascendancy for such a long time.
After the breakthrough, Everton continued to push, too, bombarding Lammens’ box with crosses that would not fall for them, though Michael Keane and substitute Tyrique George both forced diving stops from distance.
The visitors were a constant threat on the break - Cunha had slipped when breaking through on goal before the opener and Pickford denied Sesko a late second with a brilliant save in stoppage time. Everton were constant in their push forward though, even if they struggled to find menace in their attacks.
When the final whistle went the home players deserved their applause. This was not a brilliant display and there are serious questions for Moyes to address heading into the final months of the campaign: How can his side be more incisive without the injured Jack Grealish? Why are they struggling to score from set pieces, which feel such an obvious route to goal for a team lacking creativity from open play? How can he solve his concerns at full-back without moving two of his best players out of position (Jarrad Branthwaite started at left back ahead of Vitalii Mykolenko)?
But on one of the biggest - how they improve their home form - it felt like this was a step forward. The relationship between the stands and the pitch is dynamic. The supporters turned out for their team before, during and after this match, a cycle that was fuelled by the effort delivered by a group of players who, on Monday night, fought hard without a reward they would have deserved. Everton have to take some positives from that. They have to build on that.