Conor McAleny was immediately back amongst the goals for Everton in victory against Newcastle United reserves.

McAleny, returning from a spell on the sidelines, opened the scoring in audacious fashion as he latched on to a ball over the top and produced an exquisite lob to beat the keeper from all of 30 yards.

Everton coach Alan Stubbs told evertonfc.com: "Conor McAleny came back in and it was good to have him available again. He was doing really well before his injury and he was able to pick up where he left off despite the four weeks out and that was really encouraging.

"He scored a great goal and caused them plenty of problems. Vellios played the full 90 minutes and scored a couple of goals so that will have done him plenty of good. He and Conor linked up really well, they complement each other nicely and in the end Newcastle couldn't cope.

"Being a defender myself the clean sheet was really pleasing. I have been emphasising the importance of keeping clean sheets to them for the past six weeks and this was not an 'easy' clean sheet. They had to defend for spells and they all did their jobs really well."