IT’S one of the more banal entries in the footballing phrasebook – a striker going through a barren spell “just needs one to go in off his shin or his backside.”

In other words, a bit of luck in front of goal is needed to get the tally ticking over again, to trigger the confidence boost of seeing your name on the scoresheet once again.

Why something scrappy is perceived to be good for a player’s self-esteem is one of the game’s imponderables. Up there with Phil Jagielka’s route to the England squad being blocked by Michael Mancienne.

But Yakubu actually gave the cliche some credence yesterday. More feed the back, than feed the Yak, but he still gets the credit for the decisive touch that deflected the ball past Ross Turnbull to earn a point against his former club.

It was almost eerie in its similarity to Andrew Johnson’s winner against another north east club, Sunderland, last season. But a fortuitous deflection off the back is where the similarity between the goals ends.

That turned out to be Johnson’s last goal for Everton – it’s safe to say Yakubu has many more to come in a blue shirt.

On a personal level, ensuring his drought didn’t run into double figures was vital to a player who has a proud record to keep up, having never hit less than 16 goals in his five previous seasons in English football.

But such milestones are obviously a blurry backdrop in the bigger picture of Everton’s progress this season – which, oddly, has accelerated beyond previous recognition without the contribution of Yakubu’s goals.

But his equaliser against Middlesbrough keeps the overall improvement ticking along nicely.

On the face of it, 1-1 at home to a well-organised, yet severely limited side like Boro can’t really be considered a satisfactory result, particularly amidst so many negatives on the day.

The defensive lapses that blighted the early part of the season momentarily returned when Gary O’Neil had so much space to pick his spot that he must have thought he was in the away supporters’ section of the stadium.