Halfway through the second half there was a break in play as Jarrad Branthwaite and Carlton Morris received treatment on the pitch.
Twenty minutes had gone and Everton were struggling to find the momentum that had sent them into half time on the crest of a wave that, through Dominic Calvert-Lewin, had given them a foothold in the game. They had needed it after a disastrous 10 minutes in which the hosts received fair warning of the threat Luton Town posed but were unable to stop the ball from crashing into Jordan Pickford’s net, twice.
With half an hour or so left there was still plenty of time, as that injury stoppage took place, to change this game. There is quality in this squad. The players had the crowd firmly behind them. This was a time for cool heads and composed feet. It was the time for a plan.
Yet as Morris and Branthwaite were given attention there was little sign of a plot unfolding on the pitch. There were plenty of hands on hips. Only Amadou Onana went to the touchline to speak with club staff. And it showed. When play resumed nothing changed.
A disjointed, panicked conclusion was full of hard work but few real chances. It was too easy for a side many have already condemned to the Championship to break up and disrupt and predict what Everton sent their way.
The same lack of clarity paved the way for the mess that placed Everton at such a disadvantage. Tom Lockyer thundered a header over the bar and the Gwladys Street exhaled in relief that the failure to thwart him had gone unpunished.
Everton, then, could not say they had not been warned when from another corner Luton broke the deadlock. This time it was Carlton Morris’s powerful header and it dropped at the feet of Lockyer via the bar, Pickford and Ashley Young.
Seven minutes later shock turned to disbelief as Morris, a persistent threat, drifted unmarked to the back post and smashed in from a free-kick. It was another troubling reminder of the difficulty this side appears to have when defending the dead ball. Questions will be asked about whose responsibility it was to formulate a plan to stop the joy Luton had already found from set pieces – at both Finch Farm and on the pitch.
Everton needed to provide a response and they did. If there was any panic it fuelled urgency and those in Royal Blue used it to build momentum. When the goal came – the first Everton goal in L4 this season – it had been coming. Garner had almost taken the honour but while his perfectly-timed run to the edge of the six yard box was another encouraging sign of his increasing impact, he should have done better than to head Dwight McNeil’s cross against the bar.
The goal, when it did come, was scored amid a flurry of chaos. Calvert-Lewin and James Tarkowski competed for a ball in the opposition area before it was played to Onana. He was unable to get a clear strike – largely because he was being pulled back – but in the scramble that followed the save by Thomas Kaminski the ball fell to Calvert-Lewin via Abdoulaye Doucoure and Everton had a foothold in the game. The celebrations only followed a long pause while VAR checked a multitude of issues and rightly ruled in the home side’s favour.
That should have been the turning point. Against Brentford last week, the authority and maturity that Everton started the second half with made the difference.
It felt like a watershed moment for a side that, as Dyche was justified to say in his post-match comments in west London, had performed well without reward in several early games of the season. When that league win was followed by a stunning Carabao Cup victory at Aston Villa, Everton threatened sustained progress. Instead it was another false dawn.
Everton had started this match well, looking every bit a team that had won consecutive games with both victories based on strong performances. The Blues had five efforts in the first 15 minutes alone.
A sign of the confidence coursing through Blue veins was the sight of Dwight McNeil waiting for a clearance to drop from the rain-laden sky to volley first time from the edge of the area. It missed by inches. Idrissa Gueye side-footed wide when teed up in space 16 yards out and Garner cut inside from the right and bent a left-footed effort just wide of the far post.
That positive opening of the first half was not replicated after the break though. This was not a smash and grab. Everton pushed for the 52 minutes of the second half and there was no lack of fight but there was little intelligence, little cohesion, and Kaminski had few moments of fear in the Luton goal.
Jack Harrison made his Everton debut, Beto joined Calvert-Lewin up top and later Arnaut Danjuma was also introduced. Unlike in the defeats at Goodison earlier in the season, to Fulham and Wolverhampton Wanderers in particular, Dyche did have options from the bench – and he used them.
But like those losses, missed opportunities cost Everton dear. And just like those games, and the visit of Arsenal, Everton were unable to prevent another set of away supporters from leaving Goodison in celebration.
The manner of this defeat makes it more troubling. Dyche has repeatedly implored his players to change the narrative around them. It looked like they had done the hard work and their reward was to build on it with two golden opportunities at home to Luton and Bournemouth. Instead another week of pressure, nervousness and questions awaits.
Dyche will need to find solutions but responsibility must also fall on his players to provide the answers. They are also authors of their Goodison story and against Luton they wrote yet another happy ending for someone else
