LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) -Everton profited from two Kieran Trippier errors to score late goals through Dwight McNeil, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Beto as they claimed a 3-0 victory over Newcastle United at Goodison Park on Thursday to move out of the Premier League relegation zone.
It was a deserved win for the Merseysiders against a depleted Newcastle, who have now lost as many games this season, five, as in the whole of the last campaign, and with a long injury list that has left them with 12 players sidelined.
McNeil robbed Trippier of the ball before unleashing a powerful left-footed drive into the far corner of the net with 12 minutes remaining.
The England full back again lost possession and Jack Harrison's cross found Doucoure to side-foot home, before Beto's first Premier League goal came in stoppage time.
The defeat leaves Newcastle in seventh place with 26 points from 15 games amid a worsening away record, while Everton, stung by a 10-point deduction by the Premier League, move into 17th with 10 points from 15 games. Without it they would be in 10th.
"Massive result at home," McNeil told Amazon Prime. "Back-to-back wins and out of the bottom three, clean sheet. Now we've just got to keep going because we've got a massive game at home (against Chelsea) on Sunday.
"The fans are amazing, they've been through some tough times but they've stuck with us. We really appreciate it and want to give back to them."
Newcastle clearly ran out of steam in the second half, but Everton will feel they should have been ahead at the break after striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin missed a sitter as he blasted over from a few yards out with no-one around him.
As had been the story of their season, Everton created plenty but were frustrated until the closing stages, when they found a clinical touch and were able to pick up a second home win of the campaign.
Newcastle rarely threatened with their skilful, pacey forwards. Miguel Almiron fired straight at Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford when well placed, while Alexander Isak headed wide.
One of the loudest cheers of the night came when former Evertonian Anthony Gordon shot wide from distance, and he had a better opportunity when he robbed James Tarkowski of the ball, but fired straight at Pickford.
"We have to do better," Newcastle manager Eddie Howe said. "There are reasons behind every performance and we have struggled to change our players to have the attacking options we feel we need to win the game.
"That is a big miss for us, we are without some tremendous players. I think it was a missed opportunity for us and we didn't grab it and paid the price."
(Reporting by Nick SaidEditing by Christian Radnedge)