A round-up of how the national media reported on Everton's 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest
Sean Dyche’s Everton return with Nottingham Forest was ruined at Hill Dickinson Stadium as David Moyes’ men triumphed 3-0. Here is a round-up of how the national media reported on the game.
In the Guardian, Andy Hunter hailed how the Blues turned on the style.
Everton were unrecognisable to Sean Dyche on his return to the club he saved from relegation and potential administration not so long ago. In plush new surroundings, the former Everton manager encountered a contented fanbase and incisive, confident opponents as David Moyes’ team climbed to fifth in the Premier League with a comfortable win over Nottingham Forest. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall delivered another immaculate performance in the heart of Everton’s midfield as a fourth win in five games reinforced the strides made since Moyes replaced Dyche in January. Dewsbury-Hall engineered a rapid opener and scored the third, while in between Thierno Barry lifted the roof of Hill Dickinson Stadium by scoring his first Everton goal in his 17th appearance. Forest were flat and second best throughout. Everton had trailed after 55 seconds of their previous home game, against Newcastle. Keen to make amends, they were immediately on the front foot and ahead with 83 seconds on the clock.
Best take your seats early here. Forest invited problems.
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Nicolò Savona was booked after only 24 seconds for tripping Jack Grealish after the attacking midfielder slipped away from him. The visitors initially dealt with James Garner’s free-kick but Everton kept the pressure on and Dewsbury-Hall cut inside Dan Ndoye to create space on the left. The midfielder’s dangerous cross skimmed off the head of Nikola Milenkovic and nestled in the far corner of the goal. It was a terrible opening by Forest, who were a model of organisation and focus when beating Liverpool 3-0 on their last visit to Merseyside a fortnight ago. They did improve, as they had to, but it was a scrappy first half in which only 18 of the opening 40 minutes were in play. Jordan Pickford was not seriously tested in the Everton goal until stoppage time. Everton’s second was perfectly timed. Forest were developing momentum as half-time approached and came close to an equaliser when Elliot Anderson broke free of Jake O’Brien and squeezed a shot through Tarkowski’s legs. Pickford saved well, getting down quickly to his left and pushing the ball away from two Forest players lurking at the back post. Seconds later, with Forest still pushing, Omari Hutchinson’s loose touch enabled Iliman Ndiaye to pounce. The Senegal international broke from deep – and with no assistance from the referee, Chris Kavanagh – and danced around Morato to lead a three-v-one counter-attack.
Ndiaye selflessly squared to Barry and the summer signing slotted a clinical first-time finish beyond Matz Sels. The place erupted in celebration of Barry’s long-awaited and much-needed first Everton goal.
The £27m recruit from Villarreal has kept the crowd onside with admirable work-rate but his composure in front of goal has been sorely lacking. Not on this occasion, however. Dyche responded to Forest’s lethargic display with a triple half-time substitution. The changes did not alter the flow of the game nor Everton’s superiority.
Dewsbury-Hall struck a post after an intelligent one-two with Grealish and Ndiaye forced a fine save from Sels. The Forest keeper was culpable for Everton’s third, however, when connecting weakly with a Garner corner. O’Brien touched the ball out to Dewsbury-Hall and the finest player on show drilled an emphatic finish into the far corner.
Dominic King of the Daily Mail commented on how Gary Lineker would have approved of Barry’s torture coming to an end.
David Moyes shook his fists, the South Stand erupted with all its power but all Thierno Barry could do was emotionally drop to his knees. It has been a torturous few months for Barry, a France Under-21 international whose performances have sparked debate. But on the stroke of half-time, he opened up his right foot and gleefully changed the narrative: here was a moment to perfectly capture what football is all about. If ever a fanbase wants its centre-forward to thrive, it is Everton. One of the best to score goals for them (albeit briefly) was sat up in the posh seats for Nottingham Forest’s visit and there is no doubt Gary Lineker would have approved of the way Barry dispatched his first goal in royal blue. This was a difficult game. Nottingham Forest have more options and more strength in depth than Everton but Moyes, in that meticulous way of his, is building firm foundations and for all that Sean Dyche bemoaned how his team’s standards had slipped, the result was never in doubt. This was because players such as James Garner, Jake O’Brien and Michael Keane, so often unheralded, ran themselves to a standstill. Moyes highlighted James Tarkowski’s influence though Dyche pointed how the defender was lucky to escape censure for a stupid barge on Dan Ndoye. Much of Forest’s inability to get going as Dyche bemoaned was down to Everton’s superior quality, with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall a persistent, buzzing menace, his endeavour creating the opening goal after 84 seconds when Nikola Milenkovic turned in the midfielder’s cross and bookending the afternoon with a fine finish in the 76th minute. Dewsbury-Hall has been an inspired signing, endearing himself to his new fanbase with a determination to run and then run some more. His character is outstanding and he has really come to the fore in the last few weeks, taking the team forward with his energy. You could sense Moyes’s delight with it all. Will Everton play with more panache this season? Yes. Does Moyes demand improvement? Absolutely. But what can’t be stressed enough is the importance of winning the bread-and-butter games, the ones that so often in the past have caused trouble. A haul of 12 points from the last 15 has enabled Everton to zoom up into the areas of the table Moyes expects to be around and confidence will mushroom accordingly, not least for Barry, who deserved his standing ovation when he was substituted in the second period. Things have been rough for him since he moved from Villarreal for £27million; to get him up to speed with the physicality of the Premier League, Moyes has asked his defenders to kick him a bit more in training and he’s also nursed a shoulder issue that came from a dislocation.
In the Independent, Carl Markham, remarked on how Everton made this a very different return to Liverpool from Nottingham Forest’s trip to Anfield just a fortnight previously.
Thierno Barry ended his long wait for his first goal as Everton moved to within a point of the top four with a 3-0 victory over Nottingham Forest. David Moyes came out on top in the battle with his Toffees predecessor Sean Dyche as his faith in the young striker was finally rewarded.
This was the 23-year-old’s 17th appearance since his £27million move from Villarreal and his sixth successive start since his manager decided to put his trust in the Frenchman rather than the more experienced Beto. Neither forward had offered him much in the way of a threat – with just one league goal between them – and for 45 minutes Barry’s contribution was negligible.
He comfortably lost the physical battle with Nikola Milenkovic, whose own goal after just 82 seconds had put the visitors on the back foot, and twice was left rolling around on the floor after bouncing off the Serbian centre-back. But teed up by Iliman Ndiaye in an added time counter-attack Barry, with surprising confidence, produced a first-time finish of which watching former Everton striker Gary Lineker would have been proud.
The outpouring of joy from the player, his team-mates and majority of Hill Dickinson Stadium showed how much all parties had been willing the moment to happen. A fourth win in a five games lifted Everton into the European shake-up, already a remarkable achievement from Moyes managing a team whose strikers have struggled to score and which was down to its last pair of senior midfielders due to a couple of suspensions and an injury.
When Forest were last on Merseyside a fortnight ago they embarrassed Liverpool at Anfield but on their return they were left red-faced on a particularly painful afternoon for Dyche who, despite twice saving the club from relegation amid financial troubles and points deductions, never won over fans.
And the ECHO's Joe Thomas observed how what happened after Thierno Barry's first Everton goal spoke volumes as David Moyes search could now be over.
Celebrations have been a theme of recent weeks for Everton, but none were as ecstatic as this. When Thierno Barry finally scored his first goal in royal blue, it was a scene of pure elation.
The emotion was clear on and off the pitch. The 23-year-old, a ball of angst and frustration as his search for a breakthrough carried on longer than anyone hoped or expected, wheeled away towards the corner flag as the ball rolled over the line.
Off balance, having slotted past the onrushing Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels, first he had his arms wide open in joy. Then there was the knee slide. Then came the embraces of his teammates, followed by a long walk back to the halfway line and a playbook of signs of gratitude, appreciation and happiness.
On the sideline, David Moyes performed a celebratory jig. In the stands, the goal was greeted by a roar only bettered here by the chaos of Jack Grealish’s stoppage-time winner against Crystal Palace and Iliman Ndiaye’s opening goal of Everton’s new dawn on the Liverpool waterfront.
This was perhaps the purest celebration of an Everton goal since academy graduate Lewis Dobbin sealed a win over Chelsea with a late finish at the height of the club’s ruthless retort to its first points deduction, almost precisely two years ago.