Everton were made to work hard before finally prevailing over a fighting Oldham Athletic 3-1 in the F.A. Cup fifth round replay.
Goals from Kevin Mirallas, Leighton Baines and Leon Osman were enough to knock out the League One side, who got their consolation goal through Matt Smith.
Oldham had sent Liverpool packing in the previous round, and forced a replay by scoring a late goal against Everton; therefore it was not expected to be an easy outing for David Moyes' side, however an early goal from Mirallas in the 15th minute gave Everton the impetus to complete a much-needed victory at Goodison Park.
The Belgian international got on the end of a perfect cross from Leon Osman down the right to make it 1-0.
Oldham, refusing to lie down without a fight, nearly equalized almost immediately, but Jose Baxter's 25-yard effort crashed off the crossbar with Tim Howard well beaten.
However, despite Oldham's best efforts, it was Everton, without injured talisman Marouane Fellaini, who doubled their lead just past the half hour mark.
Seamus Coleman's delivery from the right struck the outstretched arm of Connor Brown, with referee Michael Oliver having no hesitation in giving a penalty.
Baines stepped up and slotted the ball past Dean Bouzanis as the home side went into halftime with a comfortable two-goal lead.
The game was put to bed in the 62nd minute with Osman guiding the ball into the back of the net off a cross from Steven Pienaar.
Substitute Smith reduced the deficit to 3-1 two minutes later off a corner, but it only turned out to be a consolation, as Everton earned a quarterfinal clash with Wigan on March 9.
"I thought there were signs tonight that our flow was coming back," Everton assistant manager Steve Round said. "Recently we had lost a little bit of that.
"I know we were against opposition lower than the Premier League but there were signs that our cohesion was coming back.
"The way that Steven Pienaar and Leighton Baines, and Kevin Mirallas and Seamus Coleman were linking up - we showed that maybe we are starting to return to some sort of form.
"It was a tough game I thought. Oldham put a right shift in and pushed us all the way. I thought they were a credit to the manager and themselves. They acquitted themselves right and made it very tough.
"Having said that, we matched them with our attitude and the quality came through in the end. You saw that with one or two of the goals that we scored. Unfortunately we missed a couple of chances to make it that little bit more clinical."
