Amid all the disappointment and rancour of Everton’s transfer window, Ainsley Maitland-Niles slipped in the back door almost unnoticed. As the club tried and catastrophically failed to sign a centre forward, the recruitment of a defensively-minded utility player was never likely to turn the dial very much.

Indeed in his own programme notes for this game, Everton manager David Moyes said only of the 29-year-old that ‘we are looking forward to getting to know him’. Suffice to say, that job is now done.

Here by the Mersey, in a stadium slowly preparing itself for another shot of stomach turning disappointment, Maitland-Niles – once of Arsenal but recently of Lyon – eased on to a loose ball in the final seconds of the 95th minute and thumped in a goal from 25 yards to rescue a point for his team.

What a goal. What an ending. What a story. Only the sixth league goal of Maitland-Niles’ career, it was one of the best this fabulous stadium has witnessed in its short lifetime. For Everton, it earned a point that – after a dismal first half – they ultimately deserved. For United, it served to remind us once again that the very best we can say about Michael Carrick’s team is they remain a work in progress.

Comfortably superior in the first 45 minutes, United seemed to have won the game twice. Once when Bryan Mbeumo scored beautifully in the first minute of the second half and again when substitute Benjamin Sesko headed them back in front at the end of normal time and six minutes after Tyrique George’s own spectacular effort had levelled for a resurgent Everton.

Ultimately, Carrick – wearing a rueful look as he walked off at the end – will wonder when he is going to see a 90-minute performance from his team. Everton improved markedly once they fell behind for the first time and the Hill-Dickinson crowd became engaged. But Carrick will wish to know just how his team lost momentum almost as soon as they went ahead. It took George’s equaliser 37 minutes later for them to wake up again.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles rescued a point for Everton on debut against Manchester United

Maitland-Niles equalised in second-half stoppage-time with this stunning long-range strike

The frustration was etched on United boss Michael Carrick’s face at full-time after their draw

It all carried something of an England-Argentina vibe and for Carrick it represents a problem. This season will be a darned sight harder than the last one. It will test his squad in every way. This week, for example, United must play in the Champions League on Thursday before hosting Manchester City three days later. Ouch.

Carrick will need his team to show more resolve than this. He will need to see a greater killer instinct. He will need to see his captain Bruno Fernandes jumping to his feet when tickled by James Tarkowski rather than lying down as though sniper shot.

At the moment the good stuff – and there is a fair amount of it – is in danger of being buried beneath bad habits. After three games – two against promoted clubs – United are in the bottom half and that should serve as warning if nothing else.

With the Everton fans bouncing and singing at the end, memories of the first half had disappeared in a haze of adrenaline and excitement.

The opening period had ended with Everton defender Jarrod Branthwaite sliding in to make a tackle on the breaking Marcus Rashford and then jumping up to block Fernandes’ shot on the follow-up.

With the crowd rising to acclaim him, Branthwaite responded with a gesture suggesting that maybe he and his team-mates could do with a little more of that.

Branthwaite maybe had a point. Up until that point, this had been a very peaceful afternoon down by the Mersey. A day perhaps to yearn for the some of the atmosphere they had left behind at Goodison Park.

Equally, crowds need something to feed off. They need something with which they can engage and their team had given them precious little. It was as though the anti-climax of the transfer window had cast a spell on everybody.

Bryan Mbuemo (left) roars with delight after scoring the opening goal for Manchester United

United – without actually scoring – had revelled in it. They had played the game at their pace and were left largely untroubled as they did so. The home crowd yearned for a strong challenge or a thumping header or a piece of individual skill. None of it came and, as such, Branthwaite’s double intervention right at the end of first half stoppage time felt like a moment.

United should have been ahead by that point. They had created space and width and opportunity but had not managed to find the right final pass, the right decision or indeed the right finish.

Carrick stuck fast to the formula employed in the 5-2 beating of Ipswich last Sunday. Rashford was in on the left side and was progressive until feeling his hamstring in the second half and Kobbie Mainoo retained his place in the centre of midfield ahead of summer signing Andrey Santos.

Everton are down on numbers. Jack Grealish – back again on loan from City – was on the bench at least and young Harrison Armstrong was in the team after his club decided against selling him to Nottingham Forest after threats of a supporter revolt.

Moyes’ team for too long looked limited in more ways than just bodies. They were often short of early ideas, too. Here, they didn’t lay a glove on United until striker Thierno Barry headed over from a Merlin Rohl cross in the 43rd minute and Branthwaite drove a shot low at Senne Lammens moments later.

Prior to that, it had been all United. Carrick’s team still look a little unbalanced without a proper centre forward – Matheus Cunha did the job here – but they attacked with menace and speed and the return of Rashford down the left side has certainly helped with that.

Fernandes was first to threaten with a hooked volley on to the bar in the eighth minute. That started with a Luke Shaw cross from the left and that side of the pitch was a problem for Everton all afternoon.

Another cross, this time from Rashford in the 22nd minute, created another issue for them and Cunha should have done more than side foot over from 18 yards after Diogo Dalot stepped over the ball to give his team mate the chance of the half.

At times, it looked a little too easy for United. There was no edge to the game at this stage. Everton had their best spell just before the break but within a minute of the game restarting, their opponents were in the lead.

Mbeumo had been hitherto quiet but when his dart infield from the right touchline saw a gap appear, he ran between Vitali Mykolenko and George to curl a superb low shot across Jordan Pickford in to the far corner. It was a quality goal from a very good player and United had the goal their superiority had deserved.

Everton now had a choice. They could either wither and die or find some kind of gumption with which to respond. Happily it was the latter and from this point on the game changed in a way that tells us much about the psychology of football.

As United drew their heads back in to their shells and with it lost all of their authority, Everton grew on the back of naked need and twice could have equalised before the hour as Barry and Brennan Johnson were in turn denied by blocks from Lisandro Martinez and Shaw.

The second one was quite spectacular from a player many United fans had hoped would have been replaced in the summer. But at least we now had a game and an atmosphere and the feeling of renewed energy was only heightened when Grealish emerged from the bench with 25 minutes left.

The loanee from City had been featured on the front of the match day programme with Everton hoping he could find some of the form he showed here last season before injury struck him down.

By now the pattern of the game had fundamentally changed. Everton’s desperation had added the necessary bite to their football and as a result United started to look a little rattled.

Fernandes annoyed everybody bar his own team-mates and his own away support by staying down after that feather touch from Tarkowski before Dalot was booked for hauling back Grealish.

With the game now being played almost exclusively in the United half, Everton just needed a moment of quality to bring them that they were starting to deserve. In the 83rd minute it arrived.

Everton equalised through Tyrique George’s thunderous effort to make it 1-1 on 83 minutes

United looked to have won it late on when Benjamin Sesko headed home, but it wasn’t to be

Hayden Hackney – a genuinely clever summer signing from Middlesbrough – made inroads laterally and was given a second chance when his misplaced pass came back to him off Martinez. This time he found George down the right and a rising shot from Everton’s best outfield player crashed past Lammens and high into the net at the near post.

United perhaps were partly to blame. Their efforts to find a second goal had been limited to say the least but at least they responded. This is a United squad with a little more depth to it and when Shaw crossed from the left in the 88th minute substitute Benjamin Sesko headed down and in when Pickford probably should have saved.

Everton have seen this script before. So have United. But just when it seemed Carrick’s players were set to leave the field talking about character and resolve and spirit, they were cut down at the death.

Maitland-Niles – an Arsenal trainee from the age of six and subsequently of Ipswich, West Brom, Roma and Southampton – can expect more than a line in the match programme next time round.