The blue smoke. The chants. The fireworks. The siren. The wall of noise that started in the Gwladys Street and reverberated around the ground for the first half an hour, an assault on the senses that rivalled anything seen by The Grand Old Lady amid the painful despair of Everton’s lowest moments last season.
The hopes. The dreams. The passion. The desire. All of a fanbase desperate for better. None of it was enough.
Everton’s twelfth man will do everything possible to pull this great club from catastrophe. But its fate rests in the hands of a squad that lacks belief, quality and resilience. This second half capitulation at home to Newcastle United was so embarrassingly dreadful that it rivalled some of the collapses already seen by this group of players during this wretched season. It might be the most damaging.
