Marco Silva had shown respect but no mercy to the club that sacked him in 2019 when returning to Goodison Park with Fulham, beating Everton every time. Victory number four was in hand, and deservedly so, when the head of Beto left the Fulham manager cursing the fickle fates of football.

The Everton substitute’s 94th-minute header salvaged a point for Sean Dyche’s team and extended their unbeaten run to five matches. It was larceny. Fulham were superior until stoppage time, controlling the play and their opponent throughout. Like his manager, Alex Iwobi looked set to haunt his former club having scored an excellent goal engineered by Emile Smith Rowe. The visitors’ only concern was not adding to it.

A desperate Everton performance called for desperate measures and the sight of Dyche sending central defender Michael Keane up to play alongside Beto, accompanied by the sound of approval from the Gwladys Street End, spoke volumes.

The old Mick Lyons routine paid off. Fulham were suddenly under sustained pressure for the first time and cracked when Ashley Young brilliantly volleyed Iliman Ndiaye’s deep centre back across goal for Beto to score his first league goal of a frustrating campaign. The forward, who is yet to start in the Premier League this season and had not played a minute of football since 17 September, was visibly emotional afterwards. As was Silva. Understandably so.

“Sometimes football is difficult to explain,” the Fulham manager lamented. “How things don’t go in the direction of the team that played much better from the first minute, the only team that tried to control the game. I asked for a reaction to Aston Villa and that was a reaction. We took all the confidence from Everton, we took the ball from them and had three or four clear chances in the first half. Second half same story. Football was really unfair on our team this evening.”

Fulham have certainly had Everton’s number in recent years. After losing on their first 14 visits to Goodison the Cottagers had won the last three league meetings here plus a Carabao Cup tie on penalties. Silva’s side again made life difficult for the hosts, dominating possession and closing off Everton’s supply lines, but it was a dire contest for the opening half-hour. A Raúl Jiménez shot that was too tame to seriously trouble Jordan Pickford was the only incident of note. Matters improved after a Vitalii Mykolenko mistake led to Adama Traoré testing the Everton goalkeeper from a tight angle and Smith Rowe volleying over as Fulham kept the pressure on.

Everton thought they had the lead when Idrissa Gueye’s long-range drive smacked the underside of Bernd Leno’s crossbar and Dominic Calvert-Lewin converted the rebound. He was immediately flagged offside, however, and the assistant’s call, a close one, was confirmed by VAR. The Fulham goalkeeper then saved a Dwight McNeil header while Iwobi blazed over at the other end from a Traoré cross.

The former Everton midfielder made amends convincingly to give Fulham a merited lead. Not that it was an outstanding performance from the visitors. It just wasn’t as bad as Everton’s. Smith Rowe orchestrated the breakthrough with a surging run from the halfway line that took him away from three half-hearted Everton challenges. The Fulham playmaker flicked a pass inside to Iwobi, who was afforded the same casual treatment by an Everton defence that backed off and encouraged their former teammate to shoot. Iwobi obliged with a precise, powerful effort placed inside Pickford’s near post. The midfielder kept the celebrations restrained against his old club but a beaming grin showed what the fine finish really meant.

It should have provided the platform for a welcome win for Fulham after defeats by Manchester City and Villa but, despite Everton appearing out of ideas, Silva’s side succumbed at the last. Dyche admitted: “We were not at it and they were better than us, but football lasts 96 minutes and the mentality I’ve asked the players to grow is that relentlessness.”