EVERTON faced up to their own version of football ‘hell’ last night as their first round European exit was greeted by the sight of thousands of opposition fans waving red and white scarves in delight. Standard’s bear pit Stade Maurice Dufrasne is situated opposite a gargantuan dark steelworks which looks like it contains the devil’s own furnaces.

However, it is a proper football ground with a proper football atmosphere – two elements often far too lacking in sterile Premier League encounters these days.

Everton’s travelling supporters filled their allocation in a section of the gloriously steep three-tiered stands behind the goals but struggled to make themselves heard above their passionate hosts.

Those same Evertonians will be wondering just where this defeat puts their beleaguered side with the last eight days going down as one of the darkest periods in Moyes’s six-and-a-half-year reign at Goodison Park.

A Carling Cup defeat to an under-strength Blackburn has now been followed up by a derby defeat to Liverpool in which Everton struggled to muster a single shot on target and this early European exit leaves the prospect of a bleak-looking winter ahead.

With no silverware to chase until January at least when the FA Cup – a competition they have been knocked out of at the first hurdle for the past two season – begins, Everton need to seriously knuckle down and try and get some vital Premier League points on the board if they’re even going to challenge for European qualification again next season.

A fourth consecutive Premier League home defeat to crisis club Newcastle on Sunday would be a disaster but Moyes’s side need a win with games against Arsenal and Manchester United on the horizon – tasks made even more daunting with the suspension of Tim Cahill.

Although there have been many ups and downs during Moyes’s reign at Goodison Park, overall Everton have enjoyed a major upturn in fortunes as a club.

But following a record high Premier League points finish to clinch fifth place five months ago, hopes were high that the foundations of success last season could be seriously built on over the summer.