AT LEAST a week of great disharmony at Goodison Park ended with all Evertonians able to celebrate a crucial victory – even if it was a little too close for comfort.

This should have been a week of celebration for the club.

Jack Rodwell earned his first England cap and quickly followed it up with his first international start, helping Fabio Capello’s men to wins over world champions Spain and Sweden alongside Goodison colleagues Phil Jagielka and Leighton Baines respectively.

Then the club’s most expensive purchase Marouane Fellaini – a £15million recruit back in 2008 when David Moyes was able to smash Everton’s transfer record for the fourth time – finally put pen to paper on a new five-year contract allaying fears that the Goodison outfit’s most valuable on-field asset might end up leaving on the cheap.

While the tightening of the purse strings suggest that Moyes will not be able to eclipse that price for the foreseeable future, an ability to retain the quality in the squad he has already accumulated remains a must if his side – aiming for a sixth consecutive top half finish – are to remain competitive at the right end of the Premier League table.

Despite such boosts from playing personnel, off-the-field disputes cast a dark cloud over Goodison going into this fixture.

First the dirty laundry of high-ranking club staff was aired for all to see in bizarre fashion on the internet with what appeared to be the result of e-mail leaks or hacking.

Although the messages that were intended to be private conversations must have proven extremely uncomfortable reading for all involved, the motives behind why they entered the public domain are perplexing.

Even if the source of this information was an individual who has a particular agenda against or dislike of Ian Ross, their actions do not seem to be ones of somebody with the general well-being of Everton at heart.

Whether you agree with their methods or not, the same cannot be said for the majority of the protestors from the Blue Union who, following their demonstration ahead of the Aston Villa game in September, staged another rally outside Goodison ahead of this fixture.

Like most Evertonians, followers of the Blue Union are frustrated over how the club appears to be lagging behind many of its Premier League rivals in the financial stakes and their pre-match literature used the example of opponents Wolves who were sold in 2007 by former owner Sir Jack Hayward – who wrote off £50million – to Liverpool-born businessman Steve Morgan for just £10 on the premise that he invested at least £30million on the playing squad.

However, Morgan himself has heavily criticised clubs who live beyond their means though and in a week when a worldwide financial crisis was mirrored by figures showing Manchester City’s staggering £190million outlay this year to buy their way to the top of the Premier League – Everton now have to operate within the measures of sobering financial prudence.

At present, for all their vociferousness, the Blue Union remain a loud but relatively small minority and while they pose many poignant questions, genuine solutions both from the club and indeed themselves, have so far proved to be more difficult to come by.

They call for a change at the top because they believe Bill Kenwright is unable to take the club forward but despite some Indian suits being given a guided tour of ‘The Grand Old Lady’ a few weeks back, no firm bids to buy the club are on the table.

At present the fact is that nobody is seriously trying to buy Everton from Kenwright.

His detractors might suggest “why not?” but then a whole new ‘chicken and egg’ argument ensues.

Ultimately it’s results on the pitch that count most though and after a run of six defeats in their last seven matches, Moyes’ men stopped the rot – eventually – with a 2-1 victory.

Like in their only previous Premier League home success to date this term, Everton had to come from behind to claim the points – again hitting back through skipper Phil Jagielka after falling victim to a first half sucker punch like they had against Wigan. The points were secured with a full seven minutes to spare – the longest period Moyes’ men have had to cling on to ensure victory this season.

The second goal in the aforementioned 3-1 win over the Latics came in the 84th minute while victories at Blackburn (1-0) and Fulham (3-1) were both achieved through decisive strikes beyond the 90th minute (two in the latter game).

Also, while Wolves remain winless at Goodison since 1979, this was Everton’s first home win over them in three attempts since the Molineux outfit returned to the top flight in 2009.

Given that much was made of Everton losing all of their recent Premier League matches against Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Newcastle – a sequence of games that yielded 11 points last season – picking up another victory in the seemingly winnable trip to Bolton, where Moyes men were beaten 2-0 last term, will be crucial in ensuring Everton’s players do not find themselves behind the eight ball going into a busy December.

Off the field, it’s a whole different ball game.