CONSIDERING the importance to their Premier League survival of Thursday night’s game against Newcastle at Goodison Park, Everton weren’t showing enough enterprise.

They had just one shot in a first half during which their opposition had dominated possession with 63 per cent of the ball but hadn’t created much with it bar a headed chance for Chris Wood.

There was added fight from Everton in comparison to the previous outing against Wolves last Sunday, but still little direction.

Then a 21-year-old tied himself to a goalpost at the Gwladys Street end, and the game became the kind of bizarre situation that the Toffees apparently thrive in.

The young protester was difficult to remove, especially as the stewards took bolt cutters to a scissors fight.

Even the protester himself, named by Just Stop Oil Campaign as Louis, began to look uncomfortable in the limelight he had sought as the stewards hacked away at the plastic fastener tied to the post and around his neck.

The Just Stop Oil Campaign demands that “the UK government immediately halt all future licensing and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK.”

This is something that has been brewing since the start of the year when in January, oil firm Ithaca Energy was given the go-ahead for its project on Abigail field in the North Sea off Scotland’s east coast.

Last Monday the Morning Star reported on the Students for Survival group, part of the Just Stop Oil movement, who staged sit-down protests in schools across London and Liverpool demanding an end to the exploitation of North Sea gas and oil.

“Just Stop Oil is a coalition of groups working together to ensure the government commits to halting new fossil fuel licensing and production,” reads a statement on their website.

Said website buckled under the attention received on Thursday night — a sign the protest at Everton had worked and begun to raise awareness.

A supporter of the same campaign had done something similar in the Arsenal vs Liverpool game at Ashburton Grove on Wednesday, but few noticed. 

Goodison Park, however, is used to mad things happening which attract attention so was the ideal theatre.

For Everton in recent times, the attention has come for all the wrong reasons. A big-spending club, but one with little direction, threatened with relegation and an end to the second-longest continuous run in the top flight (behind Arsenal).

It was no surprise, then, that the game’s first key moment in a sporting sense was a negative one for the home side as they had a player sent off for the second time in as many games.

In the first half, they had picked up where they left off against Wolves, which wasn’t a good thing. 

Loads of space in midfield for the opposition, and needing a goal but not creating chances. 

At times Everton were so bad in possession, it was almost a relief when they lost it.

Jonjoe Kenny had been sent off in that previous fixture, picking up two yellow cards in quick succession.

It was another unwanted trend that continued into this game, with Allan being shown a straight red for hacking down his Alan-with-a-double-L namesake, Allan Saint-Maximin.

It was one of those fouls where the player knows they will be booked. A cynical challenge to stop a player about to start a dangerous break but one which has occasionally, and it has to be said, inconsistently, seen red in recent times.

Allan’s lunge gave referee Craig Pawson reason to send him off, especially following a VAR check and a rewatch of the incident on the monitor.

Everton didn’t necessarily look better after going down to 10 men but were naturally different. Based on what had come before, different was good.

Seamus Coleman and Anthony Gordon had been able to get the crowd going with their play in defence and attack respectively, but as has been the case under Lampard so far, these were isolated moments away from the overall ebb and flow of the team’s limited football.

However, a substantial period of added time led to what could be a turning point in Everton’s season.

There had been a long delay while the protester was cut free. A demonstration of the indestructible nature of plastic.

From the oil used to create these materials and the greenhouse gasses emitted to the problem of single-use plastics polluting the oceans — the moment highlighted the environmental damage done throughout this cycle.

This imperishable plastic plus the lengthy VAR check for Allan’s red card meant 14 minutes were added on at the end of the 90.

By that time Dominic Calvert-Lewin was on the pitch for Everton, providing a focal point up top, and he was to play a key role in the winning goal.

It was fitting that Coleman was involved, too, on St Patrick’s Day no less, and it was his desire that won possession in midfield to start the move.

Alex Iwobi received the ball from the captain, taking Newcastle centre-back Dan Burn out of the game with his first touch.

This created a gap in the Newcastle defence, and Calvert-Lewin was on hand to help Iwobi exploit it.

The Nigerian played a one-two with the target man whose return ball was perfectly placed. Iwobi hadn’t stopped running and was able to take the pass in his stride, firing with his left foot past Martin Dubravka.

Everton fans would never have wanted to be in this position in the table, but such an important goal so late in a crazy game, combined with the rarity of anything to celebrate lately, made for a unique moment of joyous release.

Their manager, Frank Lampard, even managed to break his hand during the wild celebrations in this beyond-the-last-minute win.

It lifts his side three points ahead of Watford and the relegation zone and puts them one behind 16th-place Leeds, still with a couple of games in hand on those two sides.

It was a bizarre evening during which important messages were sent, awareness was raised, and limbs were broken in celebration. And at the end of it, Everton somehow managed to record a priceless win.