David Moyes was speaking following Everton's 3-0 Premier League victory over Nottingham Forest at Hill Dickinson Stadium – and he had plenty to say on Thierno Barry
David Moyes following Everton's win over Nottingham Forest
David Moyes following Everton's win over Nottingham Forest (Image: (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images))
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David Moyes heaped praise on Everton’s fans for the support they had given Thierno Barry during his fight for a first goal in Royal Blue. The 23-year-old had only mustered one shot on target across the opening months of his first season on Merseyside, a struggle that included a glaring miss at Sunderland that proved a turning point in that match.
His response against Fulham five days later earned a major show of support from the Everton supporters, however, and clear progress followed as Moyes kept faith in him. That trust was repaid just before half-time against Nottingham Forest when the France youth international doubled Everton’s lead and sent Hill Dickinson Stadium into celebration.
Barry’s first goal proved crucial in Everton’s efforts to secure another win in a landmark season, coming as the visitors pushed for an equaliser at the end of a half that started with Nikola Milenkovic’s own goal giving the Blues an early lead.
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It was the catalyst for emotional celebrations on the pitch and an outpouring of joy in the stands – something Moyes reflected on following the 3-0 victory.
He said: “I think I was as pleased for the supporters seeing him score as I was for the boy because I think that every Evertonian has been wanting him to score. I have to say the crowd have given him incredible support and incredible backing. It's amazing what that does to players and sometimes maybe people don't understand that.
“That energy which was coming from the crowd for him, whether he was getting kicked, subbed off or whether he was making a good run, it gives players incredible energy and gives them something different. That's why you hear so many managers talking about getting the crowd behind the team, because they do make a difference. But I think his goal was great for him because he's earned it with his work recently.
“I've got to say, the way Ili took it and laid it on a plate for him, Iliman Ndiaye’s ability to roll it softly so that he could come onto it first time and stroke it past the goalkeeper was great. It gave him no control issue, no thoughts that he had to do something different.”
Thierno Barry celebrates after scoring his first goal for Everton against Nottingham Forest
Thierno Barry celebrates after scoring his first goal for Everton against Nottingham Forest
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Everton and Barry will hope the goal is a breakthrough moment for the player, who joined from Villarreal in the summer for around £27m. While Everton have started the campaign well, the club has missed an in-form striker to put away the chances created by the likes of Ndiaye, Jack Grealish and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
The goal is vindication for Moyes’ patience in starting him in six consecutive matches. He said he did believe the forward had the potential to develop into an effective Premier League frontman and said: “We've seen him scoring goals in the last year or so and we hope that he can pick it up. He's still relatively young, he's not an experienced centre forward and especially playing centre forward in the Premier League at the moment, it's a very difficult role to to play in the first place, never mind coming into a country and trying to do well in the Premier League where, if you look at the level of the defenders which teams have got at the moment, makes it tough. So he's getting used to it. I’m really pleased for him that he got the goal.”
Moyes said he was actually happier with the clean sheet than Barry’s goal. A fourth in five matches for Everton, it came with Michael Keane returning from injury to help an injury and suspension-hit side.
He concluded: “What pleased me more was probably the clean sheet again because I knew if we kept another clean sheet then we'd give ourselves a chance of winning. But scoring three goals as well was really important. It's something which we've been a little bit short of, goals.
"The last two games we have won 1-0 and it's been pretty tight in both games. So to get a couple of goals in the first half and then obviously get one later on was huge for us. So I am pleased. All round, I’m really pleased with the result. We could have played better, this was maybe not our cleanest performance, but we did what we had to do today.”