Everton maintained their faint hopes of fourth place with a hard fought victory over relegated Derby at Goodison.

Yakubu stabbed over a gaping goal in the best chance of a poor first half which left the home fans frustrated.

Derby continued to scrap and a stinging David Jones drive from 25 yards forced a fine save from Everton's Tim Howard.

But Leon Osman found space to collect a Manuel Fernandes pass and thump the winner, though Everton's lack of a second ensured them of a tense finale.

The omens were not good for Derby, already relegated and desperately trying to scrape another five points to pass the Premiership's lowest points tally of 15, held by Sunderland.

Everton had conceded only five goals previously in 2008 and had seven clean sheets.

The home side, who welcomed back Andy Johnson to partner Yakubu in attack, might have gone ahead in the opening minute when Rams defender Dean Leacock headed towards his own goal, but the ball went into the turf and just cleared the bar.

Derby, to their credit, were full of honest endeavour throughout and they hit back on the break when Mike Sterjovski's first time angled drive was neatly pushed aside by Tim Howard.

But as the hailstones belted down, Osman waltzed through the space, collected an astute through ball from Manuel Fernandes and drove fiercely past Roy Carroll.

Osman on his right foot was then denied by an outstretched hand from the Northern Irish goalkeeper.

Only the one goal down, Derby were still very much in the match and a neat dummy from Kenny Miller created a golden opportunity for Emanuel Villa.

Everton were convinced he was offside but he was clearly on and he raced through on goal, but could only prod weakly and the advancing Howard was able to block.

Despite sill retaining the majority of possession, the Toffees could not turn a host of useful half chances into killer second goals and were relieved to hear the final whistle and tick off another victory. 

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