West Ham United piled the pressure on under-fire Everton manager Frank Lampard with a 2-0 win over the hapless Toffees at the London Stadium in the Premier League.
A first-half brace from Jarrod Bowen did the damage to propel the Hammers out of the relegation zone, leaving the Toffees 19th as Lampard was subjected to chants of "you're getting sacked in the morning" by the raucous home crowd.
Unsavoury scenes overshadowed Everton's loss to Southampton at Goodison Park last weekend, as Toffees fans demanded answers from players outside the ground, and the mood of the visiting crowd would not have improved much after the first 45.
While Lampard's side dominated possession in the opening exchanges, they did very little with it, and they were made to pay for their passiveness with 35 minutes on the clock.
The chance for a goal had seemingly gone after Vladimir Coufal's corner was cleared by Yerry Mina, but the ball was whipped back in and headed back into the path of Bowen by Kurt Zouma, and the attacker poked home from close range.
Bowen just about managed to stay onside to propel West Ham into the ascendancy, and the 26-year-old benefited from further Toffees defensive lapses to double the Hammers' lead in the 42nd minute.
Michail Antonio raced away down the right-hand side and advanced into the box before firing in a cross for Bowen, who had the simple task of firing home his second of the match with aplomb.
Lampard's shell-shocked side came agonisingly close to reducing the deficit before the break, but Alex Iwobi struck the woodwork after the ball fell kindly for him in the box.
The Everton boss responded at the break by bringing on Dwight McNeil and Tom Davies for Seamus Coleman and Vitaly Mykolenko, and the Merseyside club fought tooth and nail to get back into the game - seeing a low Idrissa Gueye effort kept out by Lukasz Fabianski just before the hour mark.
From Fabianski to Jordan Pickford, the Everton number one just about prevented West Ham from adding a third in the 67th minute - tipping Emerson Palmieri's angled effort onto the woodwork.
Everton could not force their way back into the contest during the dying embers, leaving Lampard's future shrouded in even more uncertainty before a meeting with league leaders Arsenal on February 4, while West Ham - who now sit 16th - meet Derby County in the fourth round of the FA Cup on January 30.
Ben Knapton
