Blackburn moved out of the relegation zone and above tonight's opponents with this fiercely contested but ultimately deserved victory at Ewood Park.
Rovers had been on a downward spiral, five Premiership defeats in a row before this game but Everton are also stuck in a rut of their own, no goals since September before tonight and a desperate run that has plunged them into the bottom three.
However, Blackburn did not start like a team low on confidence and were ahead within five minutes.
On-loan Liverpool defender Markus Babbel did the damage, nodding home from close range after the impressive Barry Ferguson's free-kick had bobbled around.
Babbel almost doubled the lead, a breathtaking Nigel Martyn save denying him but just eight minutes later Blackburn scored their second as Brett Emerton whipped a delicious cross onto Dwight Yorke's head.
Everton, shorn of key striker Wayne Rooney through illness, were sloppy, indecisive and unthreatening. That was until the break when David Moyes withdrew Kevin Kilbane and Alex Nyarko, bringing on the lively James McFadden and David Unsworth.
Four minutes later, they were very much back in the game. McFadden wriggled to the byline, Brad Friedel failed to deal convincingly with the cross and Tomasz Radzinski had a simple header. Game on.
The Toffees threw everything at Blackburn as the game moved towards its conclusion, but the home side still posed a threat, lively young substitute Paul Gallagher causing the defence all sorts of problems and drawing Martyn into a great save on 65 minutes.
With the clock ticking, Unsworth missed a sitter at the far post and fellow substitute Francis Jeffers went desperately close with a superb distance volley while at the other end Gallagher had a goalbound shot blocked by his own player.
But Rovers' dreadful run was over and Everton boss Moyes has a lot of thinking to do before his next game.
Speaking after the game, he said: "We've not played well enough, we were not at the races in the first half. We need to get back to what we're best at and the players say they're going to do it." His opposite number Graeme Souness was pleased to get his side back on track with tonight's victory. "I am pleased about a lot of things tonight, in the first half in particular we looked a very good side," he said.
"The fans were fantastic and deserve a special mention."