Summer signing Thierno Barry thought he had finally broken his Everton duck before his strike was ruled out, and both James Tarkowski and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall also had goals disallowed.
It could surely only be the Toffees who could score this many times in a Premier League game and have the majority of them ruled out and discounted by VAR.
But it was really encouraging to see Everton at least able to create that number of goals and put the ball into the net regularly in a match, even if some of them were ruled out eventually.
Despite all the frustration, in the end, it did not matter as the Blues got the goals they needed through Idrissa Gueye and Micheal Keane to secure all three points before the last international break of the year.
So it turned out to be a fairly routine win against a team who are struggling and one against whom Everton have a very good historical record overall.
David Moyes made a few changes to his team after the Sunderland draw, with James Garner moving to right-back again and Tim Iroegbunam returning in midfield to partner Gueye in the centre.
Both had solid outings and did their jobs well enough, with Iroegbunam in particular producing a strong display alongside the veteran Senegal star.
This is encouraging and important as Gueye will soon be off to the Africa Cup of Nations, along with his Everton team-mate, Illman Ndiaye, and his absence will leave a big hole in the middle of the pitch.
So Iroegbunam will probably be called upon regularly to help replace him, whether he plays alongside summer signing Merlin Rohl, who is returning to fitness, or Garner if he comes back into midfield.
Iroegbunam's effectiveness could be doubly beneficial, as I have always thought that Garner could play at right-back.
And although he has been in decent form in the centre of the park, it might be the best solution, at least for now, to a problem position that has bedeviled successive Toffees managers, with Moyes' latest solution, Jake O'Brien, having struggled lately too.
As for Ndiaye, he was once more in fine form, and losing him for a month or longer is going to create another huge headache for Moyes.
He has formed an excellent creative partnership out wide with Jack Grealish, who has slotted seamlessly into Ndiaye's position from last season on the left wing.
What this means is that Tyler Dibling, the club's most expensive signing from last summer, surely has to start repaying some of that big fee, assuming he is going to get some playing time when Ndiaye departs.
All in all, then, a good way to finish before that last international break and a points haul of fifteen after eleven games is decent enough, if not quite as many as might have been hoped for.