Rodwell, too, warmed to the task, his forward drives helping Everton win the midfield battle, particularly during a largely forgettable first half in which Villa, energies sapped by extra-time and penalties in the Carling Cup at Sunderland in midweek, were chronically out of sorts.

Nevertheless, Moyes’s men took until the 29th minute to fashion a chance when Heitinga’s clipped ball forward was headed narrowly off target by Yakubu, the Nigerian again benefiting from a near 90-minute run-out.

The goal their endeavours of the opening period just about deserved arrived on the stroke of half-time.

Cahill hounded Richard Dunne out of possession down the right and crossed low where the ball broke off Yakubu to the incoming unmarked Bilyaletdinov, whose neat right-footed finish rolled in despite the best efforts of Villa goalkeeper Brad Friedel to keep the ball out.

Bilyaletdinov chipped in with a similar goal against Wolves a fortnight earlier, but on Saturday he was too often on the periphery. It took Villa less than 60 seconds of the second half to draw level, Gabriel Agbonlahor’s shot parried by Tim Howard back into the danger zone where substitute John Carew struck between the legs of Sylvain Distin with his first touch.

“It wasn’t a bad result considering what we had out there but the key for us was to keep a clean sheet,” says Moyes. “We weren’t able to do that.

“We wanted the three points, and in the first half I thought it was there for us. I thought Aston Villa looked like a team that had played extra time in midweek, and if we had been up to it and capable, then we could have capitalised in the first half.

Villa got stronger in the second half, but in the first half they played like we have been in the last three or four weeks because of the amount of games we have been playing. We had a couple of opportunities and we weren’t quite good enough to take them.”

Villa, in fact, were the more likely to score after drawing level, Stiliyan Petrov seeing a powerful drive deflected over and Carew’s improvised backheel flick from a Stephen Warnock cross clutched by Howard.

Everton’s biggest threat was when Louis Saha emerged from the bench during the final quarter in place of the worryingly ineffective Marouane Fellaini, the Belgian having struggled to get into the game despite playing behind Yakubu.

A low-key afternoon was livened up in the closing moments by referee Lee Probert.

The official had already sounded a warning of his ineptitude when booking Warnock for a foul on Yakubu by Petrov, and he angered the home crowd by dismissing Bilyaletdinov in the 87th minute for a tackle on Petrov that, while a foul, perhaps didn’t warrant a straight red.

The Goodison hostility perhaps swayed the referee into evening the numbers three minutes later when he sent off Carlos Cuellar for a second bookable offence, despite the Villa man clearly winning the ball from Yakubu.

A draw, though, was the right outcome. Now Everton have the small matter of the Europa League return against Benfica on Thursday and the chance to gain a modicum of revenge for their humiliation in Portugal a fortnight ago – and prove Bananaman and his chums won’t be required.