Kevin Campbell fired Everton to within touching distance of Premiership safety - and Charlton to the brink of relegation.

The troubled Merseysiders have now won three games on the trot, and loan star Campbell has scored two goals in each of them.

He was the last man off the pitch at the end, to a standing ovation, and the cheers continued when defeats for Coventry and Blackburn just added to the jubilation around Goodison Park.

As transfer week deals go, this must surely be the most important of the season for any of the half dozen clubs fighting for their lives.

Campbell arrived after a traumatic spell in Turkey, and has now scored six in six games to make himself the club's leading league scorer.

That underlines the problem that Everton have had all season, plenty of effort but nothing at the sharp end.

Well they have now, and somehow this summer boss Walter Smith will be expected to prise enough cash out of a financially troubled club to make Campbell's position permanent.

Everton countered Charlton's brave attacks, hit them on the break and sent them stumbling even close to the drop.

Everton are now eight points clear of the drop zone, and will now be spared - surely - another final day scrap for survival.

Charlton had so much of the ball, worked so hard, but had only a late penalty to show for their efforts.

For a team with three giant centre-backs, they always looked worried in defence, Campbell bustled his way around and even Don Hutchison managed to batter his way through for a goal.

Add teenager Francis Jeffers' fourth goal for the club, storming onto a Campbell through ball, and Charlton were left in tatters. Their chances of survival must be grim now, after conceding four goals twice in a week.

It was billed as a relegation cup final, and the tension could be cut with a knife.

Everton were aiming for only their third successive league win since October 1996, and the 40-point mark most reckon means safety.

Charlton, with three ex-Everton players in their ranks in Eddie Youds, Carl Tiler and Graham Stuart - the hero five years ago of another relegation survival act - tore at the Merseysiders from the start.

Tiler and Martin Pringle both produced dangerous headers inside the first five minutes, but Everton wasted a glorious chance after nine minutes when Kevin Campbell was put clear, his attempted chip over Andy Petterson tipped away by the badly exposed keeper.

Jeffers almost embarrassed the Charlton keeper when he charged down an attempted clearance, with the ball cannoning inches wide of the post.

That incident unsettled Charlton, particularly at the back, and they proceeded to gift Everton a priceless lead after 24 minutes.

Hutchison charged down a Stuart clearance, held off three half-hearted challenges as he ran into the box, and even when he did get in a weak shot, Petterson allowed the ball to squirm under his body.

Six minutes later Everton struck again. Campbell took a pass from Hutchison, again encountered defenders frightened or unwilling to tackle, and when Richard Rufus blocked his first shot, was first to the lose ball to fire home from an acute angle.

Stuart, Olivier Dacourt and David Weir all found themselves booked as the already passionate clash hotted up, and Jeffers almost scored a third with a fine run and fierce low drive inches wide just seconds from the break.

Charlton staged a spirited second-half comeback, plenty of ball into the box, but nothing constructive in terms of shots.

Michael Ball got himself booked for clattering Mills as Everton fought to regain their control, and on the hour their prayers were answered.

Jeffers found himself in space way out on the left, and fired in a cross that really should have been cleared. But Campbell found himself unmarked, six yards out, to rise and glance a neat header into the corner of the net.

Charlton staged another flurry, with Youds, substitute Andy Hunt and Pringle all going close, but they were pulled apart again after 75 minutes.

Scot Gemmill fought his way out of defence and gave the ball to Campbell, who again held up possession, waited for Jeffers' run to take him into position and then fed through a fine pass that sent the teenager racing away to drill his shot into the far bottom corner.

There was no coming back from that, but still Charlton kept coming gamely forward.

After 81 minutes they finally got on the scoresheet when Pringle was brought down by David Unsworth in the box.

The great irony of the day, when Everton had all but saved themselves, was that it was Stuart who stepped up to drill home the penalty, to sympathetic applause from his old fans.