IT'S a good job Mark Hughes took out an insurance policy in his battle to secure European football for Blackburn Rovers next season.

Ten days ago, Blackburn fans were talking excitedly about a possible push for the Champions League after that epic victory over Manchester United sent expectations soaring through the roof.

Now, those very same fans are beginning to study maps of Eastern Europe in anticipation of a sojourn in the Intertoto Cup, because if Hughes' players serve up many more performances like this then that's going to be their only realistic avenue into Europe this term.

This was Rovers' third successive away defeat and the manner in which they succumbed to 10-man Everton set the alarm bells ringing loud and clear for Hughes and his backroom staff.

In the past three weeks, Rovers have lost to West Ham, West Brom and now Everton, the latter being the most frustrating performance of the lot.

And Hughes knows that unless he gets a grip on the situation quickly, Rovers can kiss goodbye to a top six finish, which would be a crying shame given the excellent progress that was made during the first half of the season.

This was another golden opportunity to close the gap on the teams above in the race for sixth position but, as at The Hawthorns last week, Rovers were found wanting once again and no-one was more deflated than Hughes himself after he witnessed what was surely one of the worst displays by Rovers since he succeeded Graeme Souness 16 months ago.

"I just think in certain situations we don't help ourselves and that has been the case in a couple of away performances of late," said the Welshman.

"That's something we are going to have to address, and quickly."

In many ways, Rovers are the victims of their own success.

At the beginning of the season, most fans would have been content with a mid-table finish and a run in one of the cups had you asked them what their aspirations were following an almost incessant two-year battle against relegation.

However, Hughes and his players have since surpassed those expectations by getting to within striking distance of the top six, which is why defeats like this are all the harder to bear.

Reduced to 10-men after the ninth minute dismissal of their rookie goalkeeper Iain Turner, Everton appeared to be there for the taking.

But, not for the first time this season, Rovers failed to make maximum use of their numerical advantage and James Beattie's 33rd minute header ended up proving decisive.

It was a shocking goal to concede and that rather summed up Rovers' general ineptitude on a day when too many players failed to show up and compete.

This was no smash and grab raid by Everton they also had three other goals disallowed and James McFadden hit the bar with a real contender for miss of the season.

In contrast, Rovers created precious few chances of their own, so much so that teenage keeper John Ruddy, who was thrust into the spotlight following Turner's early dismissal, barely had a shot to save of note on his Premiership debut.

Beattie was Rovers' destroyer-in-chief and he dominated his physical duel with Andy Todd and Ryan Nelsen in the same way that Kevin Campbell and Geoff Horsfield had done the week before.

At times this season, Todd and Nelsen have looked impenetrable at the heart of Rovers' back four, but they do have a tendency to struggle against the more robust, old-fashioned centre-forwards like Beattie, who won virtually everything in the air.

His ability to hold the ball up gave Everton the platform they needed, while at the same time his physical presence spread panic through Rovers' rearguard.

No-one was immune to it, least of all Lucas Neill, who crucially took his eye off the ball for a split second at a set-piece, thus affording Beattie all the time and space he needed to head what proved to be the winner.

After that, Rovers rarely looked like breaking down Everton's 10-men, who defended tigerishly.

The service into the frontmen was poor and, more often than not, the decision-making was woeful, as the midfielders repeatedly took the wrong option.

David Bentley and Brett Emerton both struggled to get quality delivery into the box and on the few occasions when they did, no-one was there to get on the end of it as Craig Bellamy and Florent Sinama Pongolle both tended to drop deep rather than play on the shoulder of the last defender.

The warning signs began flashing after seven minutes when Tim Cahill fired past Brad Friedel only to be flagged offside.

A minute later, Friedel and Todd then got in an awful tangle which left McFadden with an open goal, but the Scotland international's shot hit the bar.

The pendulum then appeared to swing back in Rovers' favour when Turner was dismissed for handling Alan Stubbs' backpass outside his area.

But, if anything, the sending off only served to galvanise Everton and they dug even deeper from that point onwards.

Todd headed over, Pongolle shot wide, and a Steven Reid header flashed the wrong side of the post as Rovers looked to turn the screw.

However, they were then stunned by a goal of alarming simplicity in the 33rd minute.

Mikel Arteta delivered a free kick from the right and as Neill fatally hesitated, Beattie stole in completely unmarked to plant an unstoppable header past Friedel.

With Rovers at sixes and sevens at the back, Beattie blasted another effort over and Stubbs had a further goal disallowed in the 58th minute for a foul.

In reply, Rovers offered precious little other than a volley from Neill that flew over and a Michael Gray header that was hacked off the line by Stubbs.

Ruddy finally made his first meaningful save of the afternoon in the 75th minute when he got down sharply to turn aside a deflected effort by Sergio Peter, but it was too little, too late.