After getting past Liverpool in the previous round Everton were up against fellow premiership high flyers Aston Villa in the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Everton struck early when Cahill headed in a corner towards goal and his shot was cleared off the line by stand in Villa captain Petrov but Everton's Jack Rodwell fired in from the rebound. Five minutes later the game was level again courtesy of a Villa penalty.

Cahill was then booked for trying to punch a cross into the net, which means he will miss next week's Premier League tie against Mark Viduka's Newcastle.

Everton took the lead again with a penalty on 24 minutes. On the turn of the hour Villa were mounting the pressure and forced Everton's goalkeeper Tim Howard into some spectacular saves while at the other end Villa's American keeper Brad Friedel denied Cahill another attempt with a header.

Cahill finally finished the game off on 76 minutes when he was left unmarked ten yards out and pointed to his black armband in the celebrations.

"I dedicated the goal to the people who have lost their lives in Australia in the bush fires,'' he told BBC Sport. "It has affected all the Australian national team and puts everything into perspective. I'm just really happy I can put something back.

"It's just a little tribute because I'm always thinking about home but particularly now, it's hit me pretty hard."

The Everton man also revealed it had been a difficult week for him and his Socceroos teammates who been on national team duty in Japan this week.

He added: "We went away to Japan midweek and it was really difficult trying to deal with the disaster in Australia and the mourning of families and the affect it has had it the Australian team as individuals."

Elsewhere in the FA Cup Mile Sterjovski's Derby came up against Manchester United.

With the game at 3-1 to the Red Devils Mile was bought off the bench after the hour to go in search of another goal for the Rams but Manchester instead finished off the game with the final score 4-1.

Over to the Old Firm Derby, Celtic's Scott McDonald played the full shift but headed wide from only a few yards out for the Hoops best chance of the game against Rangers. The derby finished a 0-0 stalemate.

In Switzerland Socceroo Scott Chipperfield didn't feature for Basel but former Sydney FC defender Mark Rudan played the full shift for his new team FC Vaduz who went down 2-1 to Sion Sitten.

Further east, the Socceroos back-up goalkeeper Michael Petkovic helped Turkish Liga leaders Sivasspor to a 1-1 against Bursaspor.