A record crowd of 1,135 saw Everton Ladies defeat city rivals Liverpool 1-0 in a hard fought Merseyside Derby at Marine FC last.
Natasha Dowie's first half strike was enough to give the Blues a win in a match they dominated.
After a slow start, the impressive Toni Duggan brought the game to life with a speculative volley from 25 yards, but Reds 'keeper Danielle Gibbons was equal that effort.
Minutes later, midfielder Jill Scott surged to the by-line before cutting back for the arriving Dowie.
But the striker was always stretching and her wayward shot was blocked by Liverpool captain Vicky Jones.
With Everton in the ascendency, Duggan again forced Gibbons into action, but her drilled strike was well parried at the near post.
Everton 'keeper Rachel Brown was left with little to do in the opening exhanges and she looked on as a mistake by her opposite number gifted the home side a goal.
This time Duggan turned provider, playing a low ball into the box a mix up between Vicky Jones and Gibbons allowed Dowie to slide in and divert the ball into an empty net.
Having struggled in the final third, Liverpool rallied after the goal and but for some lax finishing could have equalised with their best chance of the game.
A mazy run from Ruesha Littlejohn took her into the Everton box, but Kelly Jones wasted her good work with a tame shot which was easily saved.
Two minutes before the break came the Reds best chance to level the game. A corner from the right hand side was met by the unmarked Nicky Twohig but she headed over from six yards.
Minutes after the restart Mo Marley's side nearly doubled their lead. Good work from Scott, Jody Handley fed Brooke Chaplen who found room for the shot, 18-yards out, which was narrowly wide.
The work ethic of Dowie proved to be a persistant pain for the Liverpool defence as Everton piled on pressure in the second half.
She went close on 54 minutes and again, on the hour, firing across goal from the tightest of angles.
Moments later, the Liverpool skipper came to her sides rescue, with her keeper stranded she headed Duggan's cross off the line.
With the score still at 1-0 Robbie Johnson's side were always in the game and it was Littlejohn looked dangerous on the break.
Ploughing a loan furrow up front, she once again worked her way into the penalty area, only for Rachel Unitt to snuff out the danger.
Everton substitute Gwennan Harries almost made the most dramatic of impacts and was unlucky not to score the goal of the game on with 20 minutes to go.
A lofted ball from Duggan found the midfielder 25 yards from goal and her spectacular left footed volley flew inches wide of Gibbons left post.
Brown may have had a quiet evening, but she had to be on her guard until the last when Gemma Watson fired a shot on goal in the 91st minute.
Watson found room on the right hand side of the box, but her tame shot was typical of her sides toothless display.
Despite his sides loss, Reds boss Johnson was pleased with his players performance but admitted it was disappointing to concede in such an unfortunate fashion.
He said: "Performance wise I was relatively pleased with the players. Results wise, I'm extremely disappointed."
"We made the mistake, they capitalised, that was the only opportunity for a goal and we lost 1-0.
"The disappointing thing is we've shot ourselves in the foot again. It was the one difference in the game."
With his side still searching for his first win, Johnson maintains that morale is high and is hopeful that one day they will be able to match their rivals.
He added: "It's not difficult to get them going, because the players see what we're trying to do.
"I keep saying to people this a two year project. If you look at Everton, we don't have that depth and here we are competing with them."
In contrast, although delighted to see her side win their third game on the trot, Marley felt Everton could have performed better.
She said: "I'm happy with the three points, happy with the clean sheet, but by our standards, not good enough with the ball, we've got to use the ball better.
"Our girls say they want to be the best, they want to compete on every level and I'd be disappointed if they didnt accept that they weren't at a high level today."
The Everton boss praised Liverpool for making it difficult for her side, but is adament her players have go to learn how to deal with team's who are happy to frustrate them.
She added: "Credit to Liverpool, they've made it difficult. It's not a surprise, it's common when teams come here but we should be experienced enough to isolate that."
But with the end of the season fast approaching Marley is happy to sacrifice performance for points as Everton try to catch run away leaders Birmingham.
"We know we've got to win all our games and if we win playing scruffy I'll take that rather than playing pretty and not getting a lot from the game."
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