Ollie Watkins ruined David Moyes’ Everton homecoming with the only goal as Aston Villa secured their first away win in six attempts.

There was no dream start to the 61-year-old Scot’s return to the Goodison Park dugout after a gap of almost 12 years as he was unable to make an immediate impact.

Even the emotion of the occasion could not help rectify many of the problems predecessor Sean Dyche had encountered as they failed to score in an 11th Premier League match of the season.

It was perhaps understandable, considering Moyes had only had a couple of coaching sessions, there might be a few mistakes as new ideas were put in place and one of those errors led to the goal.

Not for first time on the night Jarrad Branthwaite carelessly gave away possession on the halfway line and Morgan Rogers punished him with a through ball beyond James Tarkowski which left goalkeeper Jordan Pickford in two minds whether to come or stay.

That brief moment of hesitation probably cost him as Watkins comfortably placed the ball out of his reach to ultimately move Villa level on points with sixth-placed Manchester City.

On the positive side Dominic Calvert-Lewin, without a goal in 16 league matches, was more involved but even so Everton did not manage a shot on target after Villa scored until added time at the end of the second half.

The last Premier League game Moyes failed to win at Goodison as Everton manager was a 3-3 draw with Villa in February 2013 and he then went on to win his final six.

What he would now give for half-a-dozen wins from their remaining 18 fixtures with the team currently just a point above the relegation zone.

Almost 23 years after first walking out at Goodison – and 13 since he left – Moyes played it low-key to begin with as he spent most of the warm up stood, hands in pockets, watching Villa go through their paces.

With limited resources available the Scot made just two changes, one of them enforced with injury to Armando Broja, from Dyche’s last league match in charge – the 1-0 defeat in which they failed to register a shot on target – with Calvert-Lewin and Jack Harrison coming in.

In his pre-match television interview, Moyes said it was “sentiment out the window and down to business” and, after a brief wave to all four sides of the ground, greeted with a huge cheer, straight from kick-off Pickford tried to find Calvert-Lewin.

Finding the out-of-form striker early seemed to be the priority with Calvert-Lewin running the channels and finding some support.

But Villa had the best chances, with Rogers’ early low shot tipped around the post by Pickford, making his 300th appearance for the club, Watkins steering wide from Ashley Young’s errant backpass and Jacob Ramsey missing the target in added time.

Calvert-Lewin looked livelier than recent games and, after a left-footed shot drifted across goal and wide, he had a late effort taken off the line by Boubacar Kamara.

In between, Abdoulaye Doucoure had registered only Everton’s second shot on target in three matches with an outside-of-the-boot stab at Vitalii Mykolenko’s cross.

But six minutes into the second half Watkins struck and, with Everton’s problems in front of goal, that was enough as Calvert-Lewin ballooned over their last chance from six yards in added time.