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Tim Cahill and Landon Donovan fired Everton to a 2-0 win over free-falling Sunderland as the Merseyside club's revival gathered steam at Goodison Park on Wednesday.

Cahill's seventh-minute header was quickly followed by Donovan's first strike since his loan move from Los Angeles Galaxy and Sunderland never looked like recovering.

Steve Bruce's strugglers, who went into the match with only one win in their previous 12 league matches, handed new signing Matthew Kilgallon a debut in defence and had influential midfielder Lee Cattermole back after more than a month out with a hamstring injury.

Everton recalled Leon Osman in place of Diniyar Bilyaletdinov and had injury victims Mikel Arteta, James Vaughan and Victor Anichebe, as well as loan signing Philippe Senderos, on the bench.

Everton needed only seven minutes to take the lead through Cahill. After making good progress down the left, Leighton Baines cut the ball back for Marouane Fellaini who, in turn, sent in a cross to the near post.

Cahill met it with a clever, flicked header that found the far corner of Craig Gordon's net.

Baines and Cahill were both involved in Everton's second with the defender punting a long ball forward and Cahill heading it into the path of Donovan, who beat Gordon from the edge of the area with a low left-foot drive.

It was the United States international's first strike since joining Everton earlier this month.

Kenwyne Jones, who had been dropped to the Sunderland bench following weeks of speculation about a move away from the Stadium of Light, was introduced midway through the first half after Kieran Richardson went off with an ankle injury.

But Everton continued to dominate and Cahill could have claimed his second of the night after Louis Saha's knock-on found him in the six-yard box but the Australian could only manage an uncharacteristically weak header.

Cattermole made way for Andy Reid at half-time while full-back John Mensah switched positions with centre-half Nyron Nosworthy.

But Everton kept coming and almost made it 3-0 when Osman released Donovan, who went round Gordon but saw his goalbound shot blocked by George McCartney.

A minute later Mensah produced a last-ditch tackle to deny Saha and Osman should have done better after being played in by Donovan.

With Everton in control, manager David Moyes could afford to send on Arteta and Vaughan for late runarounds, underlining how little threat Sunderland had posed.