A fine first-half display saw Brown's men race into a 3-0 lead thanks to goals from Stephen Hunt, Andy Dawson and Dean Marney.

But despite a Kamil Zayatte own-goal and a Louis Saha strike after the break, Brown was calmest man in the stadium.

"I think it was a deserved win, even though Everton scored two goals in the second half," he said. "People might have been nervous at 3-2 but I wasn't unduly worried, I thought we still had a grip on the game.

"Collectively defensively we were very good in the first half. The second half was a different ball game and an own-goal unhinges you to a certain extent.

"But we stuck at the task and thoroughly deserved the victory."