Everton 3 Doncaster Rovers 0: League Two side wave goodbye to Goodison with heads held high but no fairytale

Grant McCann's side are out of the League Cup, beaten 3-0 by an Everton side who may have to fight for their lives in the company they keep, but still have plenty of Premier League class.

If at times the visiting defenders were chasing shadows, that is because these clubs are worlds apart. But on a night when some hefty beatings were being dished out, they kept running right until the end, Owen Bailey heading over in the 89th minute.

So barring a return in this season's FA Cup, Doncaster said goodbye to the famous old ground without registering their first win on it, but went with their heads held high, applauded off by the away end, with its Rovers flags draped over the Archibald Leitch lattice work of the Bullen Road Stand.

Once Tim Iroegbunam passed in the opening goal just eight minutes into the second half there seemed little doubt who would be going into round three but there was no repeat of the 8-0 thumping of their first visit in 1939, or the 7-1 when these clubs were technically equals in 1952, just no fairytale either.

The first three minutes set the tone, not only in the way Beto, Everton's saviour when the sides met at this stage last season, dropped into midfield and played the ball through and Iroegbunam's quick feet.

Before the first minute was out, though, there had been a scuffle as Jack Senior tried to retrieve the ball from a throw-in and an Iroegbunam calling card almost as soon as he got it onto the pitch.

Tom Nixon would succumb to a hefty whack from James Garner early in the second half but the managerial mates in the opposing dugouts would not have been too unhappy with a no-quarter-given game.

Everton dominated the first half of it and struck a post right at the end of it, yet Senior forced the best save of the opening period in a rare Rovers attack.

Jay McGrath and Tom Nixon both made important blocks to limit Ian Lawlor's workload on his first start of the season, even if Joseph Olowu caused his team-mates some problems.

The first came with an errant backpass as the goalkeeper ran off his line. the second spooning a clearance almost from under his nose. On both occasions Lawlor was able to deal with it.

Centre-back McGrath did well to stop former Sheffield United forward Iliman Ndiaye playing a cross back to Beto after the Portuguese had missed Dwight McNeil's original delivery, then cut out a Jesper Lindstrom centre.

Olowu's back and Nixon's feet blocked McNeil's shot and Lawlor had to push a cross-shot from the winger wide.

But it had not all been one-way, Jordan Gibson hitting a free-kick he won himself at the top of the wall and Senior forcing Jordan Pickford to push a curling shot away after the ball was worked to him at the edge of the area.

Then right at the end of the half Garner's lovely half-volley struck Lawlor's left-hand post.

But the goal was coming and Iroegbunam provided it in the 53rd minute, passing a shot classily into the corner of the net.

Once Everton were in front, you started to fear for Doncaster, Garner dragging a shot wide, Olowu blocking Ndiaye's effort, and Beto's header not making the most of a good cross by the Senegalese making his first Toffees start but surely not his last.

But they plugged away, and good interplay Joe Ironisde and substitute Kyle Hurst forced another Pickford save before Ndiaye put the upstarts in their place.

With 74 minutes on the clock he picked the ball up deep in his own half, produced a turn which saw Jamie Sterry lose his footing on the greasy turf, accelerated away and pinged a shot in off the near post.

By now Rovers were weary, the game disjointed by a welter of leg-saving substitutions by both sides and Beto was able to get his goal in the 84th minute, set up by his heavy touch after Everton's passing had sliced through the red-and-white hoops.

Everton: Pickford; Coleman (Young 67), Keane, O'Brien, Mykolenko; Iroegbunam (Armstrong 85), Garner (Gueye 67); Lindstrom (Harrison 67), Ndiaye, McNeil; Beto.

Unused substitutes: Holgate, Calvert-Lewin, Joao Virgínia, Doucoure, Dixon

Doncaster Rovers: Lawlor; Nixon (Sterry 57), Olowu, McGrath, Senior (Sharp 75); Westbrooke (Sbarra 63), Bailey; Molyneux, Kelly (Broadbent 63), Gibson (Hurst HT); Ironside.

Unused substitutes: Anderson, Sharman-Lowe, Yeboah, Close.

Referee: J Bell (Sheffield).