Everton 3 Birmingham City 1: Carsley and Vaughan put gloss on drab performance

Everton have made something of a habit during David Moyes' time in charge of snatching late victories at Goodison, so yesterday's injury-time drama may have come as no surprise to regular observers. However, Lee Carsley's thunderbolt and James Vaughan's first goal since returning from a long injury lay-off left Birmingham shattered.

The result was a fourth successive win in all competitions for Everton – their best run since 1991 – and they will now travel to Nuremberg in the Uefa Cup and then Chelsea in good heart. In truth, they should have had the game sewn up in the first half when they were dominant, but then that does not seem to be in their character, frustratingly for Moyes.

Instead, Yakubu's fourth goal since his club-record £11.25 million move from Middlesbrough was all that separated the teams at half-time and a set-piece header from Olivier Kapo, the Frenchman's fifth in the Premier League since joining in the summer, earned parity for Birmingham 10 minutes from the end.

"We were given a bit of a chasing in the first 20 minutes," said manager Steve Bruce. "But we responded very well and to have come away with nothing is bitterly disappointing. We must learn from this." After seven defeats from 12 matches since returning to the Premier League, they had better learn fast.

Bruce, not surprisingly, left the Honduran, Wilson Palacios, out of the squad. The midfielder, whose brother Edwin was kidnapped from his home last week, watched from the stands. "He was in no frame of mind to play," said Bruce. "He has had very little sleep as he has been on the phone late into the night catching up on developments. We just hope for Wilson and his family there is a good outcome."

Yakubu opened the scoring after 10 minutes. Mikel Arteta found space in the middle, fed Steven Pienaar on the right and his centre was lifted over keeper Maik Taylor by a deft touch of the Nigerian's left foot. A mistake from Johan Djourou almost let in Yakubu for a second but Taylor blocked the striker's shot, a feat he repeated when Carsley fired one in from distance shortly afterwards. Tim Cahill then tried his luck from even further out, but his well-struck shot flew wide of Taylor's post.

Twice the visitors failed to capitalise on Everton's defensive uncertainty after the interval, on both occasions the ball being bundled clear. Instead, the Merseysiders again found a little more urgency and Arteta's quick free-kick was pulled wide by Yakubu.

Carsley sent a dipping volley from 35 yards on to the top of the Birmingham netting and Yakubu continued to pose problems, beating two defenders before shooting straight at Taylor.

Still no killer goal though and Moyes' team were made to pay 10 minutes from the end when a corner from substitute Gary McSheffrey found Kapo unattended and his close-range header went in off Phil Neville.

Home fans became increasingly agitated yet Carsley fired in a brilliant second goal in stoppage time from outside the area after Liam Ridgewell had cleared Neville's long throw. Vaughan's finish from close range, aided by Carsley's headed pass, brought the house down in the young striker's first appearance at home since his long lay-off with a collarbone injury.

"I thought we deserved the win and we certainly hadn't settled for a point," said Moyes. 'I nearly told Lee Carsley to stop shooting at half-time but I'm glad I didn't."