Everton 2, Middlesbrough 0.

YESTERDAY was designated 'Ladies Day' at Goodison Park and, to mark the occasion, actress Amanda Holden modelled a limited-edition strip in pink before kick-off. For Middlesbrough, though, there was little that was pretty about the 90 minutes that followed.

While Holden was at Everton in an attempt to persuade male supporters to bring their current partners to the game, the Teessiders were ruing the re-appearance of a former flame as they extended their winless run to four matches.

Ayegbeni Yakubu might not have scored in his first appearance against Boro since his £11.25m move to Merseyside, but his presence was enough to unsettle the hosts and create the seventh-minute opening from which Joleon Lescott broke the deadlock.

Having cited Middlesbrough's "lack of ambition" as the key factor behind his summer move to Everton, the Nigerian can now point to a five-point gap between the two sides as justification for his decision.

Yet while Steven Pienaar's second-half strike compounded Boro's misery, it would be wrong to claim that the visitors were outclassed by a home side intent on qualifying for Europe for the second season in succession.

Boro struggled to match the artistry of Mikel Arteta, the most impressive midfielder by some distance on a day when both sides struggled for fluency, but the fact that they spurned three glorious first-half opportunities suggested that a lack of creativity was not Boro's problem.

Instead, an inability to put the ball in the back of the net proved their Achilles heel. For all Gareth Southgate's protestations about his side posing a "different threat" following the departure of both Yakubu and Mark Viduka, one of their strikers is going to have to start scoring soon.

Fielding David Wheater as an emergency centre-forward, as the Boro boss was forced to do for the final 20 minutes, is not the answer. And on the evidence of the opening 70 minutes, the solution is equally unlikely to be Dong-Gook Lee either.

A decisive first half proved to be a tale of two headers. Lee had a free header from six yards and hit the crossbar; Lescott had a free header from six yards and hit the net. On such margins, games are decided.

Lee's failure to find the target ultimately proved crucial but, for arguably the first time since his January move from Pohang Steelers, it was at least possible to discern that the South Korean was on the pitch.

His movement was far more effective than it had been in any of his previous 18 outings, unsettling a surprisingly edgy Everton defence as early as the sixth minute.

Fabio Rochemback sent Lee scampering down the left touchline, and the South Korean showed commendable composure to hold the ball up before rolling it into the path of the onrushing George Boateng.

Unfortunately, for the visitors, Boateng's composure was notable only for its absence, the skipper skewing a tentative prod well wide of the target.

Given the profligate nature of the miss, it was perhaps inevitable that Everton would go straight down the other end and score. And given the acrimonious nature of Yakubu's departure from the Riverside Stadium, it was even more inevitable that the Nigerian would play a part in the goal.

Middlesbrough's defenders would have been well aware of Yakubu's multiple strengths, but after watching him spurn a succession of headed opportunities during his two years on Teesside, it is safe to assume that they would not have counted aerial ability amongst them.

Perhaps that accounted for the lack of attention they paid him as they defended Arteta's corner. Yakubu duly won a scruffy near-post flick-on ahead of the flailing Mark Schwarzer, and although the back-pedalling Jonathan Woodgate nodded the ball off the line, Lescott was on hand to head in his fourth goal of the season.

That Yakubu's usual aerial ineffectiveness was soon back on display - he guided Leighton Baines' cross at least a foot over the crossbar despite standing alone on the six-yard line - will have been of little consolation to the visitors. Courtesy of his earlier input, the damage had been done.

It might have been tempered had Gary O'Neil not stubbed a 12th-minute shot straight at Tim Howard after Lescott proved less effective in his own penalty area than he had been in Boro's, and it would certainly have been repaired had Lee been more clinical quarter-of-an-hour later.

Boateng released Luke Young on the overlap down the right, the full-back picked out Lee perfectly as he pulled towards the edge of the six-yard box, but the striker powered a header against the crossbar. He will struggle for a better opportunity to score his first Premier League goal.

His miss at least underlined Boro's counter-attacking potential, but the Teessiders were forced to spend the remainder of the opening period repelling a series of increasingly adventurous Everton attacks.

Schwarzer saved well from both Arteta and James McFadden as the hosts displayed a pleasing willingness to use the full width of the field.

But the Australian was powerless to prevent the hosts extending their lead 13 minutes after the break.

Not for the first time this season, Arteta was the architect, keeping his head on the left-hand side of the area and rolling a delicate pass into Pienaar's path. There was still plenty to do at that stage, though, and the South African did it with aplomb, steering a first-time side-foot into the corner of the net.

At 2-0 down, Southgate made two substitutions in quick succession.

The first - Tom Craddock for Mido - was understandable. The second - Chris Riggott for Lee, a substitution that saw Wheater play the final 20 minutes as a makeshift centre-forward - underlined the lack of options available to him.

Predictably enough, neither made an impact as the game meandered to its conclusion.