Everton boss David Moyes hailed Yakubu after his winner against Stoke in a game Tony Pulis felt his side were denied a perfectly good goal.
Yakubu scored his first goal since April - and the first by an Everton forward all season - to secure his side a 1-0 victory at Goodison Park.
Moyes has bemoaned the lack of goals from strikers but with Yakubu now off the mark, and Louis Saha continuing his recovery from injury by coming off the bench, the Scot expects things to improve.
"It is great for Yak to get the goal," said Moyes, whose side are now unbeaten in five matches.
"If you work hard I think the supporters appreciate you and your team-mates appreciate you.
"I think Yak has certainly improved his work and he is starting to feel more confident himself.
"It would be great if we could get back the old Yakubu.
"He is certainly getting much more like it and I think you can sense the crowd feel that way.
"I thought he held the ball up well, brought people into the game."
He had a chance in the first half and I am sure he will be disappointed he didn't do better.
"You need your strikers to do something. Top clubs have strikers who do things to win games - Rooney, Drogba, Torres.
"We needed someone to do something today and it was Yak skipping past and rifling one home."
Everton were made to work for their victory, which maintains their march up the table from the rock-bottom position they found themselves after six games.
The Toffees had the majority of possession, but Ryan Shawcross and Matthew Etherington missed good chances for Stoke, while the Potters had a seemingly good goal disallowed when Tuncay was penalised for a foul on Leighton Baines as the ball was bundled over the line at the far post.
Moyes said: "Stoke are a decent side. They are strong defensively and a threat going forward.
"For anyone to have thought any different would have been insulting to Stoke.
"I think they are an improving side and it is a great three points for us really."
Stoke have slipped down the table after three successive league defeats but Pulis was pleased with the overall performance of his side and disappointed with another refeeing decision, this time by Lee Probert, to go against his side.
Stoke feel they should have had a penalty at Bolton a fortnight ago when Zat Knight clearly handled and they were angry again a week ago when Manchester United's Gary Neville was not sent off for what looked like a second bookable offence.
Pulis said: "We are disappointed. We did our best and had a right go.
"I'm really disappointed with the disallowed goal. It's a really poor decision which has gone against us again.
"I thought it was a very even game. It was tight and when you get opportunities in tight games you have to take them.
"I am not blaming the referee for the goal Everton scored - there were two mistakes by Danny Collins and Abdoulaye Faye.
"But we have had three really tough games this week.
"We didn't get back to Stoke until 3.30 on Thursday morning.
"Then to come to Goodison Park, which is always a tough place to come, and give the performance we have done, we are very disappointed not to come away with something."
