Lift-Off at the Hill Dickinson Stadium | OneFootball

That’s what was needed.

There was something in the air down on the docks on Saturday evening. A planned welcome for the Everton team coach by fan group, the 1878s, was timed to perfection before their latest oppenents, Chelsea rocked up to the Hill Dickinson Stadium.

With a 3-week break following this game, Everton knew a positive result would not only put them, at least temporarily, into 7th place in the Premier League, but would also close the gap to Chelsea to 6 points.

Other results did not necessarily go Everton’s way on Saturday, with Brighton’s defeat of Liverpool seeing the Seagulls move above the Toffees prior to kick-off, while Fulham had also closed in on David Moyes’s men after their 2-1 win over Burnley.

But that’s where the fans made the difference as Hill Dickinson Stadium finally got its lift-off moment.

Sure, there have been flashes of what Everton’s magnificent waterfront home can produce: The 2-0 win over Brighton in the very first competitive game there was a celebration in the sun; Jack Grealish’s last-gasp goal securing the points against Crystal Palace was the first late winner on the banks of the Mersey.

But then a long winless run, stretching 3 months, had soured the feeling around the ground, and around the team and the manager, even if they kept on finding a way to grind out results on the road and keep themselves towards the top of the mid-table pack.

The win over Burnley in early March snapped that streak, but sour notes remained — fans leaving early, another late, midweek kick-off.

But on a bright spring day, with a 5:30 kick-off giving fans enough time to build themselves up, while not causing concerns about having to leave early to get home, Hill Dickinson Stadium became everything Evertonians want it to be.

First off, the team and manager delivered. They took the energy generated by the coach welcome — such occurrences that have, in the recent past, been reserved for must-win games in relegation battles — and transferred that onto the pitch in a top-class performance.

Chelsea, in many ways, were the perfect opponents. Coming into this on the back of three straight defeats, with a young team and a still relatively inexperienced coach in Liam Rosenior who has drawn some eye rolls from supporters with his High Performance Podcast style rhetoric in press conferences — “respecting the ball” … come on now, Liam.

But Chelsea are still a quality team with some world-class talents. Yet Everton not only outmuscled, outran and outfought them — Moyes also completely got the better of Rosenior tactically.

Beto was a battering ram up top... What is it about spring time and the big man coming good? He dragged Chelsea’s defenders every which way, and his finish for the opener was exquisite. He deserved his luck for his second, when his shot squirmed through Robert Sanchez’s legs.

James Garner, fresh from his richly deserved England call-up, set up Beto with one of the passes of the season. Back in midfield, with James Tarkowski fit enough to return to the defence, Garner ran the show along with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Idrissa Gana Gueye, who has certainly hit his high standards again in recent weeks.

The defence was robust, hardly giving Chelsea much of a sniff, and when the Blues from London did create an opening, Jordan Pickford was in no mood for not achieving his 100th clean sheet with Everton.

To top it all off, Iliman Ndiaye, a threat throughout, curled in a sensational finish and that’s when the jubilation really set in.

A man with a toaster and some crumpets went viral on social media — he can join the ‘Goodison dog’ and the Just Stop Oil protestor in those moments that are just somehow, iconically Everton.

Everton now have more home league wins this season than they managed in the last campaign at Goodison Park. The bar was low, but with Liverpool, Manchester City and Sunderland to come, the club needed a defining match like this to really generate some momentum heading into the run-in.

How far can that momentum take them?

//