After calls from the club to make Goodison Park a hub of noise on Sunday against Wolverhampton Wanderers, it was perhaps fitting that the most revealing moment of the day was a spell of silence.
As time was called on yet another miserable defeat for Everton, the stadium fell into a lull.
There was an eerie quiet like one this writer has never really experienced before.
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And perhaps that's because a generation of Evertonians have never gone through a situation as bleak as this.
While Everton lost 5-0 in embarrassing fashion last Monday at Tottenham Hotspur, midweek results had gone in favour of the Toffees. It gave Blues hope that with an upturn in form, they could pull away from trouble.
The double-header against Wolves and Newcastle United was expected to be a life raft for a team incapable of turning in adequate performances without home comforts. But that raft has already started to deflate.
And as news filtered through of wins for Watford and Leeds United toward full-time at Goodison on Sunday, there seemed to be a collective realisation. It was almost as though the fans in the stadium needed to take a few seconds to process it.
That Everton could go down. They really could.
The players moving toward the Gwladys Street was the trigger for that silence to be punctured.
Quickly jeers started to simmer in the lower section of the stand and while the appearance of manager Frank Lampard did prompt more smatterings of applause, there was a visceral anger from plenty of those who remained in the stadium.
'You're not fit to wear the shirt' was the chant that surged, as the players turned and trudged down the Goodison tunnel.
While there have been moments away at Brentford, Crystal Palace and Norwich City when the supporters have turned on the players, full-time on Sunday felt like the most significant show of anger there has been at Goodison.
In recent weeks, there has been a collective effort from the fanbase to make Goodison a tough place for teams to come. There have been new banners and flags on show, and there's been a snarl in the stands.
On Sunday, the ground was fertile for another raucous Goodison day.
Early on Hwang Hee-chan inexplicably went down injured and came back on to the pitch on two occasions, triggering hostility toward the referee and the opposition. The South Korean sought to apologise, but was promptly told where to go.
At that point, the stadium was ablaze with hostility. It was a mood that Everton teams in the past would have capitalised on.
But this one was unable to.
They lacked precision in their play, structure in their shape and perhaps most significantly a lack of desire - or physicality? - to put the hard yards in off the ball after an initial 20-minute flurry.
What materialised instead was a capable Wolves team slowly draining the life out of the royal blue rabble and getting the goal their control deserved through Conor Coady.
It was a different kind of defeat to the previous one - at Spurs, Everton were torn limb from limb, while against Wolves they were put under sedation - but one that will prompt as many concerns.
Because if Everton can't raise themselves for these matches on home soil against a mid-table outfit, what does their way out of the current mire look like?
With a frankly disgusting nine points accrued from their last 20 Premier League games and the worst away record in the Premier League, that path to safety looks increasingly treacherous.
For a few weeks, the fans have felt like they can help clear the way.
And in all the remaining games this season, there's no doubt they will continue to try and make the difference, putting grievances with players, directors and owners to one side.
But what can 40,000 Blues really do to help a football team so bereft of direction, determination, purpose and talent?
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They can keep singing, screaming and showing up.
They can cross their fingers and dig up the garden for four-leaf clovers.
But they're becoming increasingly and understandably desperate.
Worryingly, based on a string of abject displays, that desperation doesn't appear to be shared by those who have the privilege of donning the shirt, a privilege which so many were justified in questioning on Sunday.
