Aston Villa 3-2 Everton

Tom Cleverley scored in consecutive Premier League appearances after not finding the net in his preceding 37 outings

• Benteke scores 11th goal in nine matches

• Villa win sixth match in 12 under Sherwood

• Everton's six-match unbeaten league run ends

Christian Benteke scored twice as relegation-threatened Aston Villa beat Everton to move up to 14th in the Premier League table.

Belgian Benteke headed in from Fabian Delph's cross before scoring a second following Jack Grealish's corner.

Romelu Lukaku pulled a goal back for Everton but Tom Cleverley rifled in Villa's third after Leandro Bacuna's fine pass.

Phil Jagielka set up a tense finish when he headed in from close range.

Villa's upturn has coincided with the sparkling form of Benteke, who has scored 11 goals in the last nine matches in all competitions.

The striker took just 10 minutes to make his mark against Everton, powering a header beyond Tim Howard from Fabian Delph's deep cross from the left.

Ron Vlaar should have made it 2-0 but headed wide from Grealish's corner but the Dutch defender was involved as Benteke struck again just before half time.

Vlaar's glancing header from another Grealish delivery fell to Benteke at the back post and he steered the ball into the empty net.

Aston Villa have won six of 12 matches since Tim Sherwood took over as manager

Villa have got the FA Cup final against Arsenal on 30 May to look forward to but their focus before that is survival, and even after this win they are only two points above the bottom three.

Goalkeeper Shay Given was rewarded for his displays in the cup with a first league start since August 2012 and the 39-year-old did not have a shot to save in the first half.

That changed after the break, as he first dived to his left to keep out Romelu Lukaku's shot then had to face a penalty after Vlaar's clumsy challenge on Steven Naismith.

The Republic of Ireland international was not fooled by Lukaku's efforts to send him the wrong way but failed to prevent the shot from sneaking into the net for 2-1.

Villa restored their two-goal advantage within five minutes when Bacuna's pass picked out Cleverley bursting forward from midfield.

The on-loan Manchester United midfielder scored his first Villa goal in the 3-2 defeat at Manchester City seven days earlier and confidently rifled the ball past Howard.

Villa looked like they would see out the closing stages comfortably but Everton struck again in stoppage time.

James McCarthy's header from Baines' corner looped on top of the cross bar and England defender Jagielka headed in from inside the six-yard box.

It made for a tense final few seconds but Villa held on to collect maximum points.

Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood: "I don't want to go over the top but, Fabian Delph, there's not a better midfielder in the country at the moment.

"He breaks the play up, he carries the ball well and he can pass it. He's got everything to his game and he can score.

"He's got an array of talent. He's vital for us."

Everton manager Roberto Martinez: "In the first half, we were second best. We didn't compete as we normally do - that's not how we've been performing.

"The second half was completely different. We created enough to get something out of the game.

"It was a disappointing to give 45 minutes away. That was not good enough, that's not the level we set for ourselves."

• Read minute-by-minute updates as the match happened.

• Reaction to the game, as well as updates from Saturday's action.