THE campaign for supporters to start bringing their boots to Goodison might want to revise the terms of their crusade.

After all, hard hats would be the more appropriate attire for anyone associated with Everton right now.

A pre-season of inaction in the transfer market, indifferent performances on the field and continued uncertainty off it led to a tangible sense of trepidation heading into the new campaign.

Even before a ball was kicked, David Moyes was expressing concerns over a missed opportunity to build on last season’s success and fretting over the size of his threadbare squad.

Early evidence suggests such fears have not been misplaced.

The manner of Saturday’s opening-day defeat against Blackburn Rovers served only to strengthen the sense of despair and, more worryingly, resignation that has seeped through the Everton fanbase during the past three months.

Debate continues to rage as to how Everton, buoyed by last season’s fifth-placed finish and lengthy runs in the Carling and Uefa Cups, have managed to let that momentum grind to a shuddering halt.

It really didn’t need a galling injury-time home loss to underline the fact.

But it has. And with two weeks remaining for Moyes and the Goodison board to negotiate squad strengthening, what should have been a matter of continuing the progress of the past two years has instead become more a case of damage limitation.

Be assured that new arrivals will be snaffled before the transfer window slams shut. But whether they will be of the standard Moyes requires to maintain his team’s upward curve is highly debatable.

The core of the squad remains intact, and is more than capable of securing another top-10 finish. That, though, could ultimately be the limit of Everton’s ambition this season, and that just isn’t good enough.

With many fans’ fingers pointing at the board for taking too long to release the necessary funds, Moyes has sought, if not wholly convincingly, to shoulder much of the blame for the lack of incomings.

But having admitted to letting down his players with the failure to strengthen, the roles were reversed for the Goodison manager on Saturday, too many of his trusted lieutenants falling short of the standards they have set themselves.

There has to be at least some mitigation for this. Players are human beings, and it is inconceivable they have not been affected by Everton’s summer of discontent.

The problem for Moyes is that these are the only men he can turn to. With Saturday’s bench comprising six players without a senior career first-team start between them, competition for places is simply non-existent at present.

Indeed, it was a case of simply filling the gaps in the starting XI, a policy fraught with obvious danger.

The midfield was makeshift in the extreme; Nuno Valente and Leighton Baines taking turns to patrol the left wing, and Phil Jagielka, a centre-back by trade, at its heart alongside Jack Rodwell, a 17-year-old making his full debut.

Much is rightly expected of Rodwell, but this was not the environment in which he could immediately prosper. Nevertheless, the teenager slowly grew into the game and did not hide once during the 90 minutes, always available for a pass and willing to back up that enthusiasm with sheer graft.

The one other shaft of light amid the Goodison gloom came in the form of the magical, mesmerising talents of the talismanic Mikel Arteta.

Arteta admits to having a point to prove after his previous campaign was ruined by the groin and abdominal problems that hampered him from November onwards.

And the Spanish schemer has wasted no time, scoring one outrageous goal before cleverly creating another to give Everton hope of an unlikely and, it must be said, undeserved victory.

After Blackburn’s Steven Reid was penalised for a handball on the left-hand side of the penalty area, few players would have demonstrated the technique and presence of mind to curl home direct from the subsequent free-kick as Arteta did on the stroke of half-time, catching Paul Robinson unawares on his Rovers debut.

And the Spaniard conjured a second Everton goal on 64 minutes, accepting a Yakubu pass down the left channel and making his way to the byline before spotting the Nigerian’s run to the far post and delivering an inch-perfect cross for the striker to head home.

Arteta’s equaliser spared Everton a chorus of half-time jeers having been completely outplayed by a vibrant Blackburn side making light of rumours of dressing-room unrest over the arrival of new manager Paul Ince.

They had already threatened through Morten Gamst Pedersen, Roque Santa Cruz and David Dunn before all three combined for the opener midway through the first half.

Everton fumbled the ball in midfield and, after being fed towards a marauding Santa Cruz, possession was passed through Pedersen to Dunn, who evaded Phil Jagielka’s sliding challenge before brilliantly curling a left-footed shot beyond Tim Howard from 20 yards.

Everton’s defence has been a cause for concern throughout pre-season, in which only one clean sheet was kept in seven games.

And, two minutes after wresting the initiative with Yakubu’s goal, an uncharacteristic mistake by Joleon Lescott handed it straight back to Blackburn, the centre-back dozing momentarily to allow Santa Cruz to meet Stephen Warnock’s long ball and slot past Howard.

Not the way for Lescott to celebrate his 26th birthday; the ideal manner for Santa Cruz to mark his 27th.

There was almost a fairytale debut for Jose Baxter in the 89th minute. After coming on 11 minutes earlier to become the youngest player in Everton’s history, Baxter then almost made the most of Robinson’s flapping by meeting Jagielka’s cross but heading over the bar.

And the visitors made the most of that escape deep into injury time when, after Yakubu threatened to ruin a good day’s work by needlessly fouling Reid, Warnock’s deep free-kick was nodded on to the post by Ryan Nelsen and Andre Ooijer thrashed in the rebound.

Replays subsequently showing Nelsen was offside rubbed further salt into the wound.

Of course, there is nothing to be gained from any premature panic. But another week without new signings and an indifferent performance at West Brom on Saturday, and the hard hats will be needed more than ever.