AS, thousands of miles away, Hurricane Irene lashed his homeland, Tim Howard found himself at the eye of a different storm.

But such displacement didn’t prevent the United States goalkeeper echoing the stoicism of his compatriots by standing firm and helping Everton kickstart their campaign in the most unlikely fashion.

The delight of the jubilant away supporters that filed out of Ewood Park on Saturday was no doubt laced with an overwhelming sense of disbelief.

For more than 90 minutes, their overriding emotion would have been anger at a pitiful performance from David Moyes’s men that contrived to make Blackburn Rovers, favourites for relegation, appear top-six material.

Outplayed, outfought and outthought, only the woodwork – three times – and the heroics of Howard had combined to somehow take Everton within seconds of stealing a point.

That in injury time it became three merely underlined the astonishing daylight robbery of this result.

A win, though, is a win, no matter how scrappy, undeserved or downright lucky. And how Everton needed this.

For Howard, it was a day for redemption. Twelve months ago, the goalkeeper’s uncharacteristically sloppy error sent Everton tumbling to opening-day defeat at Blackburn Rovers.

It set the tone for a dreadful start to the campaign that saw Moyes’s men slump to the foot of the table and fail to register a league victory until October.

Fears of a repeat this season were raised when, after a worrying summer, Everton belatedly began the campaign with a dismal home loss to Queens Park Rangers. And for much of Saturday’s encounter, they proved well-placed.

Ultimately, however, this was a tale of three penalties; two missed by Blackburn, one converted by Everton, and each hotly debated by the opposing manager.