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• I’ll relish this’ says Dominic Calvert-Lewin after Everton break their duck

  Dominic Calvert-Lewin took a swipe at the Everton boo boys after marking his return from injury with a goal in the 3-1 win at Brentford.

  The England striker was jeered by some fans after he went off with a fractured cheekbone during the 4-0 defeat at Aston Villa at the start of the season.

  But he showed the Toffees what they have been missing by climbing off the bench to wrap up their first win of the season.

  “Football is a funny old game,” Calvert-Lewin told Sky Sports.

  “When I came off against Aston Villa my own fans booed me off. Today they cheered me. I’ll relish this and take the rest with a pinch of salt.”

  James Tarkowski had headed the Toffees back into the lead against his old club after Mathias Jensen cancelled out Abdoulaye Doucoure’s opener before half-time.

  Then Calvert-Lewin grabbed only his second goal since last October when he collected James Garner’s through-ball and slotted home.

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  Boss Sean Dyche insisted a vastly improved display had been on the cards for a while despite picking up just one point from their first five matches.

  He said: “I don’t think it came from  anywhere. The signs have been there but you have to change the storyline, you have to take your chances.

  “To come in at 1-1 was a bit of a head-scratcher, so to come out in the second half and be so calm again was very pleasing.

  “I’m very pleased with the whole performance. My job is to look at the performances, win or lose. We’ve deserved more but you’ve got to force it and today we did.

  “We had a good chat in the week with the players and said it’s us who have to change the story.

  “It’s tough playing well and not getting results. That’s where you should grow and have on-pitch maturity and play under pressure and that’s what we did today.”

  The Bees, by contrast, were distinctly off-colour and are still without a win at home this season.

  Boss Thomas Frank said: “It was a very bad day. Everton deserved to win, we performed badly.

  “We performed very well in our first first five games, but today was a bad one.

  “It was very unlike this group of fantastic players, but we are good at bouncing back from a bad performance and I expect us to bounce back.”

• Dominic Calvert-Lewin on target in Everton’s victory at off-colour Brentford

  Dominic Calvert-Lewin climbed off the bench to kick-start Everton’s season in a 3-1 win at Brentford.

  The England striker grabbed his first goal of the campaign to wrap up a first Premier League win for Sean Dyche’s side.

  James Tarkowski had headed the Toffees back into the lead against his old club after Mathias Jensen cancelled out Abdoulaye Doucoure’s opener.

  It was a vastly improved display by Everton, although the Bees were not at their best.

  They were not helped by a late reshuffle after Kevin Schade limped off during the warm-up and was replaced by Keane Lewis-Potter.

  Ashley Young immediately fell foul of a surging Lewis-Potter run, the 38-year-old’s tackle earning him a booking after just 38 seconds, the fastest of the season so far.

  But Everton went ahead in the sixth minute after James Garner’s corner was initially cleared.

  When the ball was laid back to Garner, the England under-21 midfielder swung in a cross towards Tarkowski.

  The former Bees defender knocked the ball down and Doucoure lashed it home on the volley for what was only Everton’s third league goal of the season.

  They should have been further ahead, but when Dwight McNeil raced on to Beto’s flick-on he dragged his effort just wide, before Doucoure crashed a shot against the crossbar.

  Brentford were uncharacteristically giving the ball away at every opportunity, but when they finally managed to string a few passes together, they equalised.

  Bryan Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa and then Vitaly Janelt fed the ball out to Jensen, who took a touch before lashing his shot across goal and in off the far post.

  Everton almost hit the front again when Idrissa Gueye’s through-ball found Beto, who dinked it over the advancing Mark Flekken only to see it float the wrong side of the post.

  Then Brentford missed a golden chance to go ahead after Gueye gave the ball away and Lewis-Potter just failed to convert Mbeumo’s cross-shot at the far post.

  Dyche sent on Calvert-Lewin for Beto with half an hour to play, but it was Tarkowski who struck first with a towering header from McNeil’s corner.

  There was no chance of a muted celebration from the centre-half, who was booed by the home fans throughout, as he gleefully ran off with his fingers in his ears.

  Calvert-Lewin, who is finally fit again after a string of injuries, then grabbed only his second goal since last October when he collected Garner’s through-ball and slotted home to secure a much-needed victory.

• Grant McCann believes Doncaster are heading in right direction after Gills scalp

  Doncaster boss Grant McCann believes his side are only getting better after making it back-to-back wins with the 2-1 triumph over high-flying Gillingham.

  Two excellent strikes from Ben Close, including an 87th-minute winner, saw Rovers collect their first home league triumph of the campaign, a week on from finally picking up a maiden victory at Forest Green.

  And McCann feels his side are firmly heading in the right direction as they seek to make up ground on the promotion-chasing pack in the division.

  “We had to be very good to win and I felt in the second half we were as good as we have been this season,” he said. “I thought we were really in control.

  “We’re yet to have that full 90-minute performance. We’re still searching and that takes some doing, every manager will tell you that. Teams will always have a spell against you.

  “I felt that Gillingham didn’t really have much of a spell against us and on a whole, I felt the second half was a real performance from us.

  “I could feel the team taking on board the information we had given them, particularly in taking up the pockets of space to have that control of the game against a top, top team.”

  Gillingham manager Neil Harris is still looking for his team to find the balance between defensive solidity and creativity after dropping points in South Yorkshire.

  The Gills set the early pace in League Two with five 1-0 wins from their opening eight matches. But with Harris encouraging them to deliver more decisive scorelines, they have shown vulnerability in defence, which he is keen to see quickly banished.

  “In the last couple of weeks we’ve been a lot more creative, we’ve had sparks, we’ve shown class and we want to continue that because if we do, we will wins games of football comfortably,” Harris said.

  “We’ve won a lot of games so far 1-0 by being resilient. In the last couple we’ve not been as resilient as I would have liked but we’ve been really good with the ball. We’ve just got to find that balance between the two.

  “The winning goal for Doncaster – he stuck it in the top corner but it’s poor from the restart, and it was from the first. To be a top team in League Two, we’ve got to be better than that from restarts.”

  Despite his frustrations, Harris felt Gillingham should have won the game comfortably.

  He said: “I’m baffled how we’ve not won the game. We’ve not won the game because we weren’t clinical enough. We should have been coming off (with) four or five goals but if you don’t take your chances, you don’t win games.”