Everton's Kevin Mirallas, second right, fires in the opener against Oldham Athletic early on in their FA Cup fifth-round replay. Photograph: Darren Staples/Reuters
The adventure is over for Oldham. Matt Smith scored one more towering FA Cup header and the League One side again defied their status to unnerve Premier League opposition, but it was not enough to derail Everton at the second attempt.
David Moyes's team were too clinical to let a home quarter-final against Wigan Athletic slip from their grasp.
Moyes had conceded the tie marked the start of a two-week period that would define Everton's season and probably his future at the club ,with Champions League qualification disappearing from view.
They made no mistake in the FA Cup thanks to goals from Kevin Mirallas, Leighton Baines and Leon Osman although, like Nottingham Forest and Liverpool before them, it was never straight-forward against the men from Boundary Park.
Everton were made to fight for every ball and every break by a fiercely committed Oldham team. A comfortable half-time lead was reward for the home side's insistence on passing their way in behind the League One defence, no matter how often the plan broke down, but did not reflect the problems they encountered along the way.
The night would easilyhave been transformed had Jose Baxter not had the misfortune to strike a post on his first appearance back at Goodison Park since leaving the club last summer.
The scourge of Merseyside in the FA Cup this season, Smith, was again left on the bench as he recovered from a shoulder injury sustained in the fourth-round win over Liverpool. Everton relief was tempered by recollections of the panic he caused when coming off the bench in the first meeting, and the stoppage-time header that earned the League One strugglers the lucrative, richly deserved replay.
Moyes' team were clearly intent on ending the contest before Smith could have an impact, though Oldham continued to unsettle their opponents in his absence.
Oldham's caretaker manager, Tony Philliskirk, did not tread with caution, deploying a two-man attack comprising the former Scotland international Chris Iwelumo and Lee Barnard, and a commitment to get numbers forward at every opportunity. The visitors received ample encouragement from a raucous travelling support of around 5,000.
One of their most celebrated fans, Paul Scholes, also looked on with his son from the main stand as a scrappy yet entertaining contest unfolded.
Everton, minus the injured Marouane Fellaini, struggled to find any rhythm as Oldham pressed and harried relentlessly but they made an early breakthrough thanks to Mirallas and a costly defensive lapse. Phil Neville, Seamus Coleman and Darron Gibson worked patiently down the right, a route exploited all night by Everton, and when the Republic of Ireland midfielder sent over a sweeping cross Mirallas was on hand to divert an excellent first touch beyond the goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis.
Mirallas has been asked for more from his manager following a quiet return from injury and he was assisted by slack Oldham marking for his first goal since September.
The visitors were almost level before the Everton celebrations had ended. Barnard won a long ball on the edge of the area that rebounded off Phil Jagielka into the path of Baxter.
The midfielder from Bootle checked on to his right and curled a delightful shot over Tim Howard but with the equaliser beckoning, the ball struck the post and rebounded out. Oldham's misfortune increased when Jagielka's clearance struck Gibson on the arm only for the referee Michael Oliver to wave play on. A series of baffling decisions ensured him the wrath of the travelling fans at the interval.
Rejected penalty claims evened up when the referee failed to penalise the Oldham defender James Tarkowski for pulling Nikica Jelavic to the floor as they tussled for another cross from the right by Everton. He eventually pointed to the spot when Jelavic collapsed again under a challenge as Coleman clipped a ball into the box from the byline, though not for that reason. The ball cleared the fallen Croat and struck Connor Brown on an arm. Baines, who had gone close earlier with a 25-yard drive, just about found the bottom of the net with a penalty kick that Bouzanis almost saved.
Everton should have had a third early in the second half as they prospered again from right-wing crosses but Jagielka took a clear opening off the toes of Jelavic only to blaze over and Osman volleyed softly into the arms of the Oldham keeper from Coleman's inviting delivery. Then came Smith, 10 minutes after the restart as part of a double substitution with Robbie Simpson, and the entire mood of the contest changed.
Oldham suddenly had the initiative and Everton the jitters as a series of high balls dropped into their area. Moyes screamed at Mirallas and Steven Pienaar to close down the visiting full-backs.
The tie appeared to be beyond Oldham when Osman did deliver a third for Everton with a glancing header from a Pienaar cross that Bouzanis, distracted by Jelavic, allowed to squirm through his grasp. But seconds later Smith brought renewed hope to Oldham with a repeat of his 95th-minute goal in the first meeting between the teams.
Brown swung over a corner from the right and the centre-forward easily escaped Neville and Sylvain Distin to head beyond Howard. But it proved the final act of Oldham's impressive run.
Source: Guardian
Go Everton.