NO headsets, no half-time on-pitch histrionics and no karaoke crooning. For Yakubu, there was only one way to announce his return – by finding the net.

The Everton striker has travelled a long, painful road to recovery since snapping his Achilles at Tottenham Hotspur last November, countless hours spent in the solitude of rehabilitation as David Moyes’s side earned a fifth-placed finish and won through to the FA Cup final.

So there was a huge emotional release when, just 11 minutes into his first start since that serious injury, he last night demonstrated he had lost none of his lethal marksmanship with a finish that was trademark Yakubu.

The Nigerian celebrated by heading for the touchline to embrace head physio Mick Rathbone, emphasising the debt of gratitude the forward feels towards the man whose expertise helped coax and cajole him back to fitness.

Of course, Yakubu – whose strike was his first since netting against Middlesbrough on November 16 last year – still has work to do before fully regaining his all-important match sharpness.

But by the time he departed at the break, the returning striker had also laid on a goal for Dan Gosling and, with Jo also finding the net before the break, Everton’s progress to the fourth round of the Carling Cup was already assured.

A further strike from Leon Osman earned a much-changed side emphatic victory at Hull City and ensured a hat-trick of wins inside a week for Everton, racking up 11 goals while keeping three successive clean sheets.

With each impressive victory, the travails of the opening weeks slip further and further out of view for Moyes’s side.

Remarkably, this was the first time Everton had scored four times away from home since the 4-3 win at Derby County on March 23 2002 – Moyes’s first away game in charge at Goodison.

And you have to go back to March 1991 for the last time Everton netted three or more goals in three successive matches.

In truth, had they not took their foot off the gas during the second half last night they could have had more, so embarrassingly one-sided was this encounter.