Everton needed this. With Manchester United and Newcastle United to come and three consecutive Premier League defeats behind them, it would not have taken a psychologist to gauge the mood if they had suffered another disappointment here.
Instead, they left west London after a stunning and morale-boosting finale, in which Bobby Zamora contrived one of the misses of the season for Fulham in the 89th minute and Everton went straight up to the other end to score through the substitute Louis Saha.
The former Fulham striker beat Aaron Hughes, who had been on the field as a substitute for only a matter of seconds, before he shot past Mark Schwarzer. Jack Rodwell added gloss to the scoreline when he blasted home after Royston Drenthe's free-kick had been cleared to him.
Zamora's miss was extraordinary. Confronted by the Everton goalkeeper, Tim Howard, he jinked inside him to open up an empty net. He went for top-corner precision but, to general disbelief, he lifted his shot over the crossbar from eight yards.
"At that moment in time, I thought it was over and done with," said the Everton manager, David Moyes. "This has always been a hard ground for us and when Zamora went round the goalie it looked like it was going to be the same again. But that's football, isn't it? You take your chances or you don't. And it can be costly, if you don't."
Martin Jol, the Fulham manager, who has endured a slightly fractious relationship with Zamora, refused to criticise him, even if it felt like the time for a quotation about the missus being more capable. "He is sick, we are all sick but he didn't do it on purpose," Jol said. "You should apologise if you get a red card, not if you miss a chance."
Fulham had slumbered at the outset and Everton, driven by the lively Drenthe, on his first Premier League start, took advantage. The on-loan Real Madrid winger did little to track the marauding John Arne Riise but he caught the eye with his sharp turns and low centre of gravity and his goal was a beauty, a first-time curler from 25 yards that eluded Schwarzer at full stretch.
Everton might have made the game safe if first Rodwell and then Apostolos Vellios had converted headed chances and, reprieved, Fulham bounced back. Danny Murphy's performance was sloppy but he hit the post from distance in the 24th minute and Everton could be indebted to Howard for the preservation of their first-half lead. He made reflex saves to deny Clint Dempsey and Brede Hangeland while Dempsey also shot past the angle.
Jol looked to have turned the game with his first substitution. He brought on Bryan Ruiz and switched to an attack-minded 4-1-4-1 and, three minutes later, the Costa Rican had equalised with a sumptuously weighted chip. It represented the first dividend on his £10.6m deadline day transfer from Twente. Ruiz, in from the fringes, almost scored again only for Howard to block while, moments earlier, Saha had been thwarted by Schwarzer.
Jol's second change, straight after Zamora's miss, was forced upon him, when the assistant referee said Zdenek Grygera had to come off because he had a bloody head wound. Chris Baird moved to right-back and Hughes came into the centre of the defence, which was promptly breached by a direct Everton attack and Saha.
"Hughes didn't start because he had a hamstring problem and he has just told me that he has injured it again without touching the ball," said Jol, who lamented a game of "contradictions". The biggest ones were at the bitter end.
Man of the match Tim Howard (Everton)
