Injury-hit Everton heaped more misery on relegation-threatened Wolves with a 3-0 win at Molineux.
The Toffees, who were without the likes of Mikel Arteta, Marouane Fellaini and Tim Cahill, were on the back foot for the opening 20 minutes and would have fallen behind had Leon Osman not headed Steven Fletcher’s effort off the line.
Everton then took the lead against the run of play when Osman got free and crossed for Jermaine Beckford to glance home the opener on 21 minutes.
Wolves were reeling and were fortunate not to fall further behind when Osman again found Beckford, but this time the former Leeds United striker’s effort was kept out by Wayne Hennessey.
At the other end Phil Jagielka’s stunning block prevented Sylvan Ebanks-Blake from snatching an equaliser, but it was all Everton and it took a smart save from Hennessey to prevent George Elokobi from scoring an own goal.
However, Beckford quickly created another chance on goal and this time his cross was hammered home by Phil Neville.
Magaye Gueye wasted a glorious one-on-one chance to make it three, but a third did come on the stroke of half-time when some poor midfield play gifted possession to Diniyar Bilyaletdinov and he surged forward before firing past Hennessey from distance.
Wolves had a penalty appeal waved away when Matt Jarvis’ shot appeared to strike the arm of Tony Hibbert, but there were offering little in response, and when they did Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard was on hand to deny Karl Henry and Adlene Guedioura.
The Toffees could have added further embarrassment late on but Bilyaletdinov squandered the chance to net his second goal of the day.