But England’s most senior bowler hinted at what all the England dressing room were feeling when suggesting the top order had let everybody down in Adelaide.

The sight of Craig Overton, a 23-year-old on his Ashes and Test debut, successfully fending off a physical and verbal assault to post the highest score of England’s first innings at 41 not out, should have made uncomfortable viewing for the more experienced batters.

“We should have got more runs,” said Anderson. “All we can do as bowlers is try our best and that’s what we did. We’ve got some very frustrated players in the dressing room.”

Yet if England’s batting performance was weak with Alastair Cook, James Vince, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali all getting out to loose shots as Australia stuck the boot in, the hope as they watched Overton take the bruises is that resolve not regret was the over-riding emotion.

What England need in Adelaide and beyond is for at least two of the top order to drop anchor per innings, to have their wickets chiselled from rock before they go up on the scoreboard.

What happened here was not good enough, England collapsing to 227 all out, 215 adrift of Australia’s first-innings score, and more akin to a gift-wrapping service.

And yet, against that gloomy backdrop, it was a day which finished with hope. Slim hope, yes, but hope after the bowlers battled to at least land a few blows on Australia’s top order, Anderson and Woakes chipping out the top four including David Warner and Steve Smith.

Woakes had his first really good day on this tour, combining with Overton for a 66-run partnership for England’s eighth wicket, then producing a superb spell of swing bowling under lights in tandem with Anderson to get Warner and Smith.

It was his partnership with Overton which landed the first angry blow on the Australian push, inching England’s total not quite up to the follow-on target but close enough to make Smith feel that his bowlers had toiled enough.

“Craig batted beautifully on debut, going to the crease and getting plenty of verbals, as you would expect, and plenty of short stuff,” said Woakes. “We applied ourselves pretty well.

“I was pretty annoyed with the way I got out. I feel I probably left a few runs out there.

“But we fought back well, and we pushed Australia back, which is good to see. We can take some positive stuff from that, like showing some good character.”

Australia have posted a first-innings lead of over 200 at home 25 times since 1990 and have won every single one of them. But England’s top order have not only the chance to make a bit of history but sow doubt and tire legs ahead of Perth.

“It’s obviously frustrating as a team, but it’s not as bowlers versus batters by any means,” said the ever genial Woakes. “We’re here to stick together. We didn’t play as well as we’d have liked. We need to continue to apply ourselves for long periods at a time.

“But if you can build a partnership and keep the ball soft, it gets easier. That’s what we need to do as a team. We need to bat for longer periods. We need to get stuck into the battle.”

Cook had looked in good nick before edging Nathan Lyon to slip – a 50th Test wicket against England for the spinner. Vince was out to an airy waft outside off stump, Root the same, while Bairstow and Moeen both tentatively chipped balls back to bowlers.

The form of England’s captain has not gone unnoticed with nine here to go with his 66 in two innings in Brisbane.

However Mitchell Starc, who finished with 3-49, said: “We’ve spoken a lot about him over the last few weeks and while he’s not in the runs yet, we know how good a player he is. We’ll have to get him out a few more times in this series – three more times at least to win the Ashes.

“But he’s done it here before so he’s not someone you can take lightly. We’re going to have to keep coming up with extra plans for when he does score those runs.”

England need Root to do so as a matter of urgency, but he needs support from the rest of his top order, otherwise England are going to be 2-0 down heading to Perth on Thursday.