Everton are down... but not out

Everton are down... but not out (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images) Virgil van Dijk sauntering away in front of the South Stand at Hill Dickinson Stadium, celebrating putting Liverpool 2-1 up in the 10th minute of 11 added on, will live long in the memory for all the wrong reasons. Liverpool won the first Merseyside derby at Hill Dickinson Stadium.

It is the first time since 2021, when Everton played under Rafael Benitez, that the Reds have won an away derby. It’s even so more frustrating because Liverpool were there for the taking. Five points separated the teams heading into the game; Everton fans gathered en masse on Regent Road for an epic bus welcome; and the 1878s did another superb job of making the ground look spectacular before kick-off.

Everton started positively, getting on the front foot, hunting Liverpool down. Beto glanced a header goalwards, forcing Giorgi Mamardashvili into action. Everton’s in-form Number 9 then raced through onto an exquisite Jarrad Branthwaite pass, yet got his finish all wrong.

But buoyed on by a fervent crowd, David Moyes’s men kept going, and it seemed as though there would be another lift-off moment when Iliman Ndiaye coolly took in a deflected cross and picked out the right-hand corner. The celebrations were incredible, Ndiaye going as far to shout “We built this city” into the South Stand. But the goal was ruled out — Jake O’Brien did not get back onside in the build-up.