The Blues were beaten by a wickedly deflected Claus Jensen shot but really should have had the points in the bag by half time.
From the first to the final first half whistle we out passed, out manoeuvred and even out muscled a clueless looking Fulham team.
Andy Johnson could have opened the scoring after 12 minutes when, despite hitting a volley into the ground, Anti Niemi did well to scramble across goal to palm the effort round the post.
Johnson was again in the thick of the action a few minutes later as he had his weekly penalty appeal, almost inevitably, turned down.
The Everton striker ran into the box and was clumsily clattered into by
Ian Pearce, the Arnold Schwarzenegger to David Unsworth's Danny deVito.
But, as is increasingly becoming the case, Johnson's reputation is preceding him and the appeal was waved away.
A lot has been made of the way that Johnson goes down, and it's common
knowledge that about half the goals he scored for Palace the other year
were from the spot, but he never dives when he's not been touched and
winning penalties is part of his game.
As he makes a run into the box he always knows where the opposition
defenders are and, more often than not, he will cut across the last man,
which will either result in the defender stopping dead and doing that
‘don't shoot' hands-in-the-air thing or he will clip his jet-propelled heels.
But this appears to have become something of a cause celebre amongst the
pundits this season and the referees appear to be taking note and are more inclined not to give him a penalty.
Let's see what they're all saying when Johnson wins a penalty for
Anyway, the penalty wasn't given, these things even themselves out, yadda yadda yadda…
Despite our superior possession it took us another ten minutes to carve out a clear openeing but Niemi was again on hand to palm over a
And it was just as well that the effort was saved as the linesman had, incorrectly, flagged for offside and the goal would have been disallowed anyway.
The officials were not having a particularly good day!
Everton's next chance came just before half time but, once again, Johnson couldn't force the ball home.
He got on the end of a Tim Cahill cross but, instead of jabbing a toe at the ball, he opted to try and flick the ball on and past Niemi but could only scoop it over the bar.
And that was to prove costly in the second half.
Fulham started the second half with a lot more purpose and were not allowing Everton to pass the ball about as they had done in the first half.
The Cottagers forced their first opening 10 minutes into the second half
but Tim Howard dived to make a great save after Pearce headed on a Claus
Jensen free kick.
But Howard was helpless 10 minutes later as a tame looking effort form
Jensen clipped the leg of the onrushing Lee Carsley and looped over the
Everton ‘keeper.
With Everton's 4-5-1 formation looking ineffective, Moyes replaced Simon
Davies with James Beattie as it looked like we could play all day without finding the back of the net.
And Beattie almost levelled things within five minutes of coming on but he curled his shot just wide of the Fulham upright.
Then, as the game entered the last 10 minutes, Johnson was again denied
by Niemi and was denied a penalty, this time for staying on his feet.
Johnson burst into the box and, despite being clearly pulled back by Pearce, he got his shot away but Niemi blocked it and got back up again to block Johnson as he tried to net the loose ball.
The only thing in the referee's defence in this instance was that perhaps he was playing an advantage as Johnson did get his shot away.
But the way the day was going, we'd have probably missed the bloody spot
kick anyway!
And so the game ended in another Craven Cottage defeat for the Blues
and, in a weekend when we could have gone third, we instead slipped to
seventh.
Next up it's Villa at Goodison on Saturday.
We could really do with a repeat of last season's result in that one!