“It helped when we had two up front when Yak came on,” said Baines. “I thought he did well for us and provided a link to the attack, but we couldn’t put our chances away. We all know Yak is a top player and he did make a difference.

“We’ve got some quality strikers here, but at the moment we seem to be struggling to put the ball into the net.”

Bilyaletdinov’s goal was his first since arriving from Lokomotiv Moscow for £9million shortly before the summer transfer deadline.

And Baines said: “It’s great for Billy to get the goal. It was an important goal for us. He is a really nice lad and has settled in quickly. It helps a lot that he can speak the language. He’s quite a quiet lad but being able to interact makes a difference. More often than not he can understand what we are saying and joins in. He’s done well and is going to be a good player for us.”

Bilyaletdinov was one of a clutch of players to have endured long-haul trips during the international break of the previous week.

But while accepting such demands had contributed to a lacklustre Everton performance, Baines refused to use them as an excuse for the failure to win.

“We’ve got quite a few lads who travelled long distances after the internationals, Tim Cahill, Tim Howard, Billy and Joseph Yobo all had games a fair bit away,” said Baines. “We didn’t see them until Friday and we didn’t even see Tim Howard until Saturday, so it does disrupt things a little bit. But it’s similar for a lot of teams at the moment, we cannot use that as an excuse.”