At least Kevin MacDonald can go into his meeting with Randy Lerner with a smile on his face. Whether MacDonald wants to take over as manager or, perhaps more to the point, whether the Villa owner is interested in appointing him, remains to be seen, but three points here have gone some way towards repairing the damage inflicted after a chastening week that included a 6-0 thumping at Newcastle and elimination from Europe.

Everton were the more accomplished side and laid siege to the Villa goal at times but Luke Young’s splendid early strike, when he curled a left-footed shot beyond Tim Howard, proved the difference. The relief at the final whistle was tangible and not only among the Villa supporters. MacDonald, who has been in charge on a caretaker basis since Martin O’Neill walked out five days before the start of the season, looked emotionally drained.

Lerner made a visit to the home dressing room afterwards to congratulate MacDonald and the players. The Villa chairman will start interviewing for a successor to O’Neill during the international break and he has told MacDonald he will need to know whether he wishes to be considered for the position by tomorrow morning at the latest. The 50-year-old is comfortable with that timetable, although he remains none the wiser about whether to throw his name forward.

“Mr Lerner came in to say well done to the players,” MacDonald said. “He also passed on a comment to say well done to myself and Tony [McAndrew, MacDonald's assistant], because he knows the emotions we had been going through [on the touchline].

“He said: ‘Take your time and enjoy your evening, think about what we have said before and speak to him tomorrow evening or at the latest Tuesday morning.’ But he didn’t put any pressure on me, which I was pleased about.

“I still don’t know whether it’s for me or not. I have thoughts where I want to do it and I’ve had other thoughts that this isn’t what my life is about. I have also got to believe that I am going to be good enough myself. That’s something that I think about deeply. I’ve got to believe that I am good enough to make sure Aston Villa stays where it is and, hopefully, progresses, whether that’s with some more younger players or whatever.”

The Villa caretaker, who was more animated on the touchline than in previous matches, would have been breathing more easily if his side had taken one of the opportunities they spurned on the counterattack. Tim Howard, the Everton goalkeeper, thwarted John Carew and Ashley Young on a couple of occasions but the most inviting chance for Villa to double their lead fell to Marc Albrighton. With Howard stranded, the young winger blazed horribly over from six yards out.

Everton left the pitch crestfallen and well they might. David Moyes’s side played like the home team, taking the game to Villa and doing everything but score. The statistics said it all: Everton controlled 68% of possession and had 18 corners to Villa’s four. It was as much as Villa could do to get out of their half at times and, in the closing stages, they were hanging on for dear life. Deep into injury time, Brad Friedel denied Louis Saha with two fine saves.

Plenty of Everton chances had also come and gone before the frantic finale. Steven Pienaar struck the crossbar in the 18th minute with a brilliant curling shot while Saha, whose arrival for the ineffective Jermaine Beckford gave Everton some much-needed thrust up front, drew a smart reflex save from Friedel on the hour. Three minutes later Jack Rodwell found space in the Villa penalty area but his glancing header from Mikel Arteta’s free-kick flashed inches wide.

All of which was of little consolation to Moyes, who has presided over Everton’s worst start to a league season in 11 years. “If that’s the case, it’s another milestone I’ve achieved,” said Everton’s manager, who admitted his team were guilty of over-elaborating at times. “When you don’t feel as though you are scoring freely, you try and be over-precise. But we did enough to come away with something, if not more than one point.”

Premier LeagueAston VillaEvertonStuart Jamesguardian.co.uk

• Home side booed off after Wolves nearly snatch win
• ‘One point from two games not good enough’ – Mikel Arteta

Everton’s rich history is now told in a continuous seam of panels around Goodison Park, from their formation in 1878 to the present day. 2011, they hope, will record the first trophy of David Moyes’s reign and a season befitting the club’s finest squad since the 1987 panel showing Kevin Ratcliffe with the league title. So far it would simply read: ‘another false start’.

The ‘Everton Timeline’ – as it is called – is certainly effective, as collisions between fans with their eyes fixed sideways and general astonishment at the inclusion of a picture of Nick Barmby testified on Saturday. The Everton team is not. Early days, of course, yet already Moyes’s side are struggling with the weight of expectation and have only themselves to blame for trailing the leading pack once again.

Frustration is settling in on the campaign where under-achievement will be less tolerated. “Two games and only one point is not good enough for us,” Mikel Arteta admitted. “We need to start winning and getting points because there are big teams ahead of us who are winning.”

By contrast Wolves are progressing according to plan. Mick McCarthy spent big this summer in the context of Molineux’s recent history and in comparison with many Premier League peers. He was without two players acquired to push Wolves further away from trouble this season, Steven Fletcher and Stephen Hunt, but that target looked comfortably attainable without them here.

That McCarthy’s team were well-drilled, unyielding and resilient was no surprise to Everton, who dominated first-half possession but lacked the guile or finishing touch to make immediate amends for their opening day defeat at Ewood Park. But they were subdued far too easily by Wolves’ desire to take the game to their hosts after the break.

The introduction of the Algeria international midfielder Adlène Guedioura for George Elokobi, the left-back, gave Karl Henry the added bite required to wrest control of midfield. Indeed the visitors rightly sensed victory once Sylvan Ebanks-Blake converted a fine counterattack to equalise with 15 minutes remaining. Only desperate blocks on Matthew Jarvis by Everton’s central defenders, Sylvain Distin and Phil Jagielka, prevented their second successive 2-1 win.

McCarthy, who blamed himself for Wolves’ first-half retreat, said: “We could have been out of sight in the first half but we defended really well in front of Marcus Hahnemann. Marcus didn’t have much to do but the back four, the midfield and the front two were all bollocksed with all the work they had to do.”

Everton’s performance petered out towards the inevitable boos on the final whistle. Whether injury-plagued, fully fit, complete with new signings or soldiering on without, they have struggled to hit the ground settled or running under Moyes. With Aston Villa and Manchester United to come in the Premier League, they needed another of their belligerent responses to keep this season’s aspirations intact.

The sum total of their dominance in the opening period was a sliced Diniyar Bilyaletdinov shot, a save by Hahnemann from Johnny Heitinga, a close shave from Steven Pienaar and, finally, after the referee Lee Mason somehow failed to award a penalty for a foul by Stephen Ward on Arteta, a scrambled goal from Tim Cahill from the subsequent free-kick. Controversy surrounded both goals, with Wolves appealing for a foul by Cahill on Jody Craddock and Everton likewise when Guedioura caught Heitinga in a 50-50 challenge before Ebanks-Blake levelled.

It was instructive that Moyes refused to give the benefit of the doubt to his players, preferring instead to question Heitinga’s commitment to the tackle and the lazy loss of possession by Louis Saha that demonstrated why he was demoted to the bench in the first place. The Everton manager said: “We were on the attack but we got involved in overdoing it with one-touch passes. We shouldn’t have had to make the tackle but I still would have hoped we’d have come out with the ball.”

The afternoon was uninformative for Fabio Capello, with Phil Jagielka and Leighton Baines subdued and Jack Rodwell strangely left on the bench throughout. In the absence of outstanding homegrown talent it was left to Arteta to admit that, now he is eligible for British citizenship, England is a possibility. “If one day the opportunity comes obviously I would have to consider it very seriously,” said the Spaniard. Not on current form.

Premier LeagueEvertonWolverhampton WanderersAndy Hunterguardian.co.uk