Take a good look at the scoreline, yes Everton did score five!

The team that had managed a pitiful three home goals in 12 Premiership matches all season, went goal crazy and mauled a very poor Middlesbrough side.

Boro may have been were crippled by injury, but that was no excuse for a display as uninspired as this. Bryan Robson's side have now gone seven games without a league win, picking up just two points in that dismal run and their fans were trailing out with half an hour left.

For Everton it is heady stuff. Into the FA Cup quarter-finals on Saturday with a display of guts, skill and genuine commitment, the Merseysiders carried that form into their relegation fight.

They needed to. Charlton's win over neighbours Liverpool at the weekend had closed the gap to just one point from the relegation zone for Everton.

Nicky Barmby grabbed two excellent goals inside 16 minutes, and from then on it was a case of how many more. Olivier Dacourt and Marco Materazzi both scored their first league goals for the club, while David Unsworth weighed in with his first of the season.

Don Hutchison, on the brink of a Scotland call-up, was outstanding in his new forward role, while Barmby has found his best form in months. Dacourt, too, was outstanding in midfield while teenager Francis Jeffers and midfielder Tony Grant are improving with every game.

Boro were left with that uneasy feeling that they may look safe in mid-table, but if they keep playing like this they will be fighting relegation come May.

It took just those 42 seconds for Everton to score, and it was a peace of a move involving five players in a quickfire passing routine started inside their own half by Dacourt.

John Oster, Hutchison and then Jeffers with a run and low cross, set up Barmby to side foot home from six yards.

Dacourt found himself booked after 12 minutes, his 11th of the season, but it looked like it was more Grant's tackle on Andy Campbell that did the damage, rather than the Frenchman.

Everton should have had a penalty after 15 minutes when Steve Vickers made a hash of a clearance and hooked the ball onto his own arm. The ball bounced for Barmby, who looked to be brought down by the former Tranmere defender, but referee Keith Burge ignored appeals for both offences.

It didn't matter - Everton got their second a minute later. Hutchison again laid the ball into Barmby's path and the ex-Middlesbrough player ran clear to neatly chip the ball over Mark Schwarzer's diving body.

Boro had barely got into Everton's half at this stage, but they did produce one near-miss on 20 minutes when Mikkel Beck fired in a lob from the left hand corner of the box, and Thomas Myhre had to paw the effort away from under the far angle.

Michael Ball was booked after 23 minutes, his eighth of the season and now an automatic ban, as Everton piled on the pressure.

Jeffers nearly scored after 60 minutes when he ran at Gary Pallister, turning the ex-England defender inside out before firing in a shot that Schwarzer saved.

But the third Everton goal came a minute later, Dacourt's scoring the first in the partisan Gwladys Street end in the Premiership all season.

Hutchison played a neat one-two with Jeffers before curling in a low shot that Schwarzer pushed out into the path of the Frenchman, who neatly clipped the ball home.

That equalled the total of league goals Everton have scored at home all season, and after 67 minutes they got another, Materazzi grabbing his first goal for the club with a powerful free-kick from just outside the box.

The fifth came after 75 minutes when Hutchison fired over a cross following a short corner, and Unsworth was up in the box to head home.

Teams

Everton: Myhre, Ball, Unsworth, Materazzi, Dunne, Dacourt, Barmby, Oster (Weir 73), Grant, Jeffers (Bakayoko 76), Hutchison.

Subs Not Used: Cadamarteri, O'Kane, Simonsen.

Booked: Dacourt, Ball.

Goals: Barmby 1, 16, Dacourt 62, Materazzi 67, Unsworth 74.

Middlesbrough: Schwarzer, Gordon, Pallister, Cooper, Stockdale, Mustoe, Gascoigne (Ricard 71), Townsend, Vickers (Summerbell 71), Beck, Campbell (Maddison 80).

Subs Not Used: Moore, Beresford.

Booked: Townsend, Pallister, Summerbell.

Att: 31,606

Ref: K Burge (Tonypandy).