Everton’s relegation woes continued against fellow strugglers Southampton.
Amadou Onana opened his account for Frank Lampard’s side late into the first half with a downward header to meet Demarai Gray’s corner from the right.
But the visitors drew level just one minute after the interval through James Ward-Prowse slotting home as Che Adams nodded the ball into his path.
Ward-Prowse gave the Saints the lead in the game’s final quarter with a well-struck free kick which left Jordan Pickford stranded in the Park End goal.
A fourth straight home defeat – last achieved in 1958 – leaves the Blues still mired in the Premier League’s bottom three, with 15 points from 19 games.
Here were the key talking points from Goodison Park:
Board stay away marks all-time low
The Goodison Park directors’ box was noticeably empty throughout this game.
Not since the tumultuous days of Peter Johnson’s premiership, 25 years ago, has any executive been ordered to stay away from Everton home matches.
But personal safety fears forced Bill Kenwright, Denise Barrett-Baxendale, Grant Ingles and Graeme Sharp to sit out this encounter with the Saints.
That sight of the entire Blues’ board in absentia marks a new low in the deteriorating relationship between the club’s hierarchy and its fanbase.
Thousands of supporters stayed behind long after the game in peaceful protest against the same custodians under strict instruction to keep away.
Amid accusations of death threats and physical abuse, mistrust reigns on both sides of the conflict as supporter-club relations plunge to newfound depths.
They were at a critical juncture in the months before the arrival of Farhad Moshiri as Everton’s majority shareholder, and the ensuing chaos it brought.
How – or even if – those wounds can be repaired appears as far away as the British-Iranian billionaire, now on a 15-month personal exile, than ever before.
No remedies in Blues’ back five
Frank Lampard’s latest throw of the dice was to revert to the only tactic which served his side well during their current chastening run in all competitions.
Given operating with a five-man defence earned a point at Manchester City and hollow platitudes in an FA Cup exit to Manchester United, it made sense.
Initially the Everton manager’s tactic appeared to pay off, with his team able to weather Southampton’s first-half storm before taking the lead themselves.
Cracks, however, were already beginning to appear in the more regimented system as Vitalii Mykolenko was routinely exposed down the left-hand side.
Those vulnerabilities spread quickly across the back fire, typified by James Ward-Prowse’s early second-half equaliser in the middle of the penalty area.
Against more imposing opponents, like the two Manchester clubs, Lampard’s conservative approach seems to pay off in unlikely fashion for Everton.
Yet when even the league’s bottom team are able to exploit it, the former midfielder is running out of ideas as well as time in the battle to save his job.
Is Lampard’s time finally up?
Once more, Lampard is standing on the brink as Everton manager.
A fourth straight home defeat sees the 44-year-old equalling the dismal run of one win in 13 games that condemned predecessor Rafael Benitez to his fate.
More damningly, it extended his side’s barren run beyond its current 85-day stretch – a feat unmatched by any team in English football’s top six tiers.
It was 12 months this weekend that Benitez was jettisoned but little has changed for the Blues since the deeply unpopular Spaniard finally departed.
If anything, they are now going backwards; languishing in the Premier League’s relegation zone at the season’s midway point and devoid of hope.
Lampard was lucky to survive his most recent appearance before the Goodison crowd, a 4-1 drubbing by Brighton & Hove Albion 10 days prior.
Only the ever-unpredictable Moshiri will know whether the former midfielder will be as fortunate on the back of yet another listless performance from his team.
Should he wish to still own a club in the English top flight by the end of May, the answer is increasingly self-evident. Failing to act is no longer an option.