Oumar Niasse's refusal to give up helped inspire Everton to a dramatic 3-2 comeback win over Watford on November 5, 2017
Oumar Niasse holds off Christian Kabasele as he goes on to score his side's first goal during the match between Everton and Watford at Goodison Park on November 5, 2017
Oumar Niasse holds off Christian Kabasele as he goes on to score his side's first goal during the match between Everton and Watford at Goodison Park on November 5, 2017
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The dramatic 3-2 win over Watford eight years ago today was one of the great Everton comebacks and it was inspired by one of the great Blues fighters who refused to give up.
With Beto and Thierno Barry both struggling to score, and the latter who is yet to break his duck, missing a sitter at Sunderland on Monday night, Everton are still looking to find a worthy successor to Romelu Lukaku who departed Goodison Park for Manchester United in the summer of 2017. A short-term failure to do that – after seeing Olivier Giroud slip through his fingers after he had him “in the building” – contributed to Ronald Koeman losing his job as Blues boss but his departure offered a fresh start for Oumar Niasse, who had been frozen out under the Dutchman and infamously had his locker taken off him.
On November 5, 2017, Niasse helped turn the tide in a memorable encounter. In the Battling Displays chapter of the book Spirit of the Blues, this correspondent wrote: “Talk about Bonfire Night fireworks – this spectacular at Goodison Park crackled with all the whiz-bangs, rockets and explosive action anyone could ever stomach.
“A first 3-2 victory on home turf for Everton after trailing 2-0 since the ‘Great Escape’ against Wimbledon in 1994. Check.
“Thirteen minutes of added time after a goalkeeper went off injured (after colliding with Niasse). Check.
“The Blues securing their winner with a penalty in injury time before Watford had the chance to equalise with a spot-kick of their own only for a Goodison old boy (Tom Cleverley) to miss. Check.
“Throw into the heady mix that this was also caretaker manager David Unsworth’s first victory since Ronald Koeman was sacked and it came against a future Everton boss Marco Silva with future Everton player Richarlison opening the scoring, then there is plenty to digest.”
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Although Watford went 2-0 up, in between their goals they lost their experienced goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes after he collided with Niasse and while his 32-year-old replacement Orestis Karnezis was a seasoned pro himself, this was a baptism of fire for him in English football. Niasse would help spark the comeback because, as Phil Kirkbride observed at the time in the ECHO: “If nothing else, he runs. And so, when racing on to Ademola Lookman’s ball over the top, he nicked the ball past Karnezis, went down under Jose Holebas’ foul in the six-yard box but his momentum, and shoulder, knocked the ball over the line.”
That was in the 67th minute and seven minutes later, having introduced him as a substitute just after Niasse’s goal Everton had their equaliser through Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who headed home Leighton Baines’ corner. Baines netted the stoppage time winner with a penalty after Holebas brought down Aaron Lennon but there was still time for Cleverley to miss from the spot when he hit wide after Jordan Pickford had clipped Richarlison.
The never-say-die attitude was typical of Niasse’s approach. In an interview with BBC Radio Merseyside’s Giulia Bould broadcast last month, the former Senegal international – who donned the royal blue jersey again this year when he helped Everton Legends to a 2-0 win over their Roma counterparts at Hill Dickinson Stadium – spoke about how he refused to cave in to Koeman’s approach to him.
Niasse said: “Roberto Martinez got sacked and the new manager came in and said he wanted me to go. I said: ‘If I have an option to go on loan to a Premier League club, I will do it.’
“Of course, I had other offers to go to Turkey, Russia, even China at the time was good money, but I didn’t want to go because my dream was there. That’s what kept me going, [the thought] ‘I don’t want to leave, I don’t want to leave.’
“Luckily, people around the club never made me feel like an outsider, even if I was with the Under-23s and all of that. I so said: ‘Why would I do something not right if I see only one person here [who doesn’t want me].
“When you see the football club with 300 people working there, coming in to Finch Farm each morning to go to work, all of them are good. Only one person can be negative and it doesn’t have to make you negative about the circumstances.
“At the same time, there is not only the people working at the club but also the fans and they believed and weren’t going with the one person who was being negative. I’m not going to be throwing everything away or doing something that’s not right because of one person, I have to look at all the people who are giving me their support, whether I can see them or not.
“Once I started playing with the U23s it was easy. The boys were respectful, David Unsworth who was the manager was a good person to me.
“With that connection, I felt ‘I can do my job here with the U23s, I can help them progress, give them a little bit of experience.’ At the same time, I learned from them because I didn’t have time to be with the U23s when I was growing up.
“I had never been in an academy, so for me it was a new way of learning. I still had the dream of ‘I can make it, I can do it,’ it’s just about time, so that’s what kept me going.”
Chris Beesley will be joined by former Everton player Michael Ball as he discusses Spirit of the Blues at Waterstones’ Liverpool One store at 6:30pm on Tuesday November 25. Tickets need to be booked in advance with details here.