The Magpies pushed the Toffees right up until the final 10 minutes, when their quality shone through, and Ornella Vignola’s brace secured all three points.

The Lasses made a quick turnaround after playing in the same competition on Sunday, but their performance was much improved, with Tanya Oxtoby at the centre of it.

The Australian manager made 10 changes from Sunday’s Tyne-Wear derby defeat, which saw a full debut for homegrown talent Abbie Richardson, as well as Lia Cataldo starting for the first time in almost a year.

United more than held their own in the first half as they restricted the Toffees to long-range efforts and balls over the top, which were largely dealt with by the back four.

However, there were two early scares before the 20th minute. Initially, Noéme Mouchon thought she’d scored after tapping home from close range after an Anna Tamminen save but was quickly flagged for offside.

Then, Hanna Cain was teed up by Mouchon unmarked at the back post, but after beating Tamminen, she was denied by the foot of the post as her effort spun behind.

It was a game which was lacking in chances and star quality, and neither keeper was being forced into action that required them to be worried, albeit the scoreline heading into the break certainly favoured United.

After those early chances from Everton, the closest either side came in the remainder of the opening 45 minutes was through Vignola when she received the ball on the half turn 20 yards out but was denied by the diving Tamminen.

While Newcastle did a lot of defending in the first half, they carved out the best opening of the early exchanges. Emilia Larsson chopped inside the box before spotting the run of Richardson on the edge of the area.

However, on her full debut for the club, her effort lacked direction and was easily gathered by Rylee Foster-Inman.

The Lasses continued to grow in confidence as the game went on, with Lois Joel’s corner only being half cleared by Everton to Larsson on the edge of the box and with the ball sitting up nicely, she took aim, but her strike whistled just over the crossbar.

After a raft of changes in the second half, Newcastle were causing the hosts far more problems, and Charlotte Wardlaw almost got her second goal of the season after driving forward from the halfway line and shrugging off Maz Pacheco; unfortunately, her effort lacked power and was dived upon by the Everton keeper.

Coming on at the break, Rendell wasn’t truly tested until the 79th minute when she athletically tipped over Cain’s lofted strike at the last moment.

United’s resolve was finally broken with 10 minutes to play when Vignola pounced on Németh’s soft headed clearance before taking aim outside the box and beating Rendell.

The Toffees quickly doubled their lead when Vignola swept home her second after latching onto a Clare Wheeler cross.

Despite going behind late on, Newcastle almost found a way back into the game. Oona Sevenius won the ball back in Everton’s final third before flicking the ball on to Mollie Lambert with just Foster-Inman to beat but blazed over.

Newcastle United Women: Anna Tamminen (c) (Kayla Rendell 46), Charlotte Wardlaw, Kathleen McGovern (Jessie Gale 60), Emilia Larsson, Hanna Németh, Oona Sevenius, Lois Joel, Gemma Evans, Leanne Kiernan (Mollie Lambert 71), Abbia Richardson (Ashanti Akpan 71), Lia Cataldo (Jemma Purfield 85)

Subs not used: Demi Stokes, Katie Bradley, Casi Gregson