Iliman Ndiaye opened his goalscoring account for Everton and Tim Iroegbunam looks likely to have his first for the Club awarded to Dwight McNeil as Sean Dyche’s men booked their place in the Carabao Cup Third Round with a 3-0 win over Doncaster Rovers at Goodison Park.

After a goalless first half that saw the returning James Garner smack the post with a side-foot effort in stoppage time, Iroegbunam broke the deadlock with a crisp low drive that clipped McNeil on its way through to goal past Ian Lawlor before a terrific effort from Ndiaye effectively made the game safe.

Beto rounded off the scoring with a late third as the Toffees completed the first leg of a two-game sequence at home that supporters hope can provide the spark to kickstart the team’s season after miserable back-to-back defeats to start the Premier League campaign.

As expected, Dyche made a number of changes to his starting XI and he finally handed Ndiaye, Jesper Lindstrøm and Jake O’Brien their full debuts while there were surprise returns from injury for Seamus Coleman and James Garner.

As expected, the hosts were on the front foot early but looked unconvincing going forward despite McNeil finding Beto in the six-yard box during a promising opening where the striker couldn’t convert.

However, Everton grew into their task and started moving the ball around well, Ndiaye laying it off to McNeil whose shot was deflected wide after 12 minutes while the roving winger saw a similar effort meet the same fate on the half-hour mark.

In between, Doncaster had been holding their own and after Jack Senior had forced Jordan Pickford to palm his curling shot behind, Luke Molineux spurned a decent chance by firing straight at the goalkeeper.

Then, after Beto had failed to meet a whipped Garner cross from the right, Everton finished the half strongly by twice going close. First Garner’s side-foot effort was deflected over and then, from the resulting corner and Michael Keane’s header back from the byline, the midfielder guided a second salvo past a forest of players and off the woodwork.

The much-needed breakthrough came eight minutes after the restart, though when Lindstrøm worked his way into the Doncaster box and delayed before cutting it back towards the penalty spot where Iroegbunam arrived to meet it with a first-time strike. McNeil claimed it and he was awarded it by the stadium announcer, Simon Ross, but it remains to be seen whether he will officially be credited for it.

Garner swept wide when decently placed, Ndiaye had a shot charged down for another corner and Beto missed with a header when the latter served a peach of a cross on a proverbial platter for the Portuguese before Pickford was called into action again to deny Kyle Hurst with 20 minutes to go.

A minute after that, however, Ndiaye lit up the contest with a wonderfully-taken goal that underlined supporter frustration with Dyche for withholding the Senegalese from the starting line-up for the first two Premier League fixtures.

With great feet, he easily turned Jamie Sterry and feinted his way past Joseph Olowu before drilling a left-footer past Lawlor to make it 2-0.

The Rovers keeper had to tip McNeil’s raking strike over the bar shortly afterwards but after substitute Jack Harrison had blazed over with his weaker foot, Beto completed the scoring.

Laying the ball off to McNeil, the striker continued his run into the box as the former picked out Vitalii Mykolenko on the overlap and the Ukrainian found Beto who touched it past the last defender before prodding home with the outside of his boot.

Though the opposition were demonstrably inferior, and the scoreline reflected the gulf in stature of the two clubs, this was nonetheless the result that Everton badly needed.

Inman Ndiaye in particular staked a strong claim for inclusion in the starting XI against Bournemouth on Saturday while O’Brien played with Branthwaite-esque calm and Lindstrom’s assist for the second goal demonstrated what he can bring to the table on the right flank as an alternative to Harrison.

Most importantly, breaking the duck for the season with three goals will, hopefully, inject the requisite confidence into the team's collective vein ahead of an important Premier league fixture at the weekend.