National media round-up of Everton's 3-1 Carabao Cup win over Newcastle United after Jack Grealish was left out of the squad
Thierno Barry celebrates his goal during the Carabao Cup fourth round match between Everton and Newcastle United at Hill Dickinson Stadium on October 29, 2026
Thierno Barry celebrates his goal during the Carabao Cup fourth round match between Everton and Newcastle United at Hill Dickinson Stadium on October 29, 2026(Image: Tony McArdle/Eveton FC via Getty Images)
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In their first of two meetings in the space of just five days, Everton triumphed 3-1 in their Carabao Cup clash with Newcastle United to set up a quarter-final at Fleetwood Town but the Blues had to get the job done without Jack Grealish who was left out of the squad after missing training. Here’s a round-up of how the national media reported on Thursday night’s game at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Dominic King of the Daily Telegraph focused on how the rest of the Everton team stepped up in Grealish’s absence.
David Moyes took a glug of water and glanced up at the big screen away to his right, almost as if he wanted confirmation that what he was seeing was true.
Had he looked behind him, Moyes would have seen Andy Burnham and his wife, Marie-France, in raptures, along with thousands of others. It was true, all right. Everton had scored their third goal and were bounding into the Carabao Cup quarter-finals, seemingly without a care in the world.
What a happy change of direction. Moyes has spent months spinning plates, dealing with owners who do not care about a proud club and want to sell up and a squad that was left criminally short in the transfer window. Then, before Newcastle’s visit, came more disruption.
READ MORE: Jack Grealish incident quickly forgotten as Everton thoughts turn to ending trophy drought
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Jack Grealish’s selfish and reckless decision to go Awol from training on Monday could have been a catalyst for more misery and invited Newcastle to deliver a hammer blow to Everton’s season, but again, Moyes fostered a siege mentality. He was rewarded in the most emphatic fashion.
True, Newcastle collapsed like a deckchair without hinges and this performance – which encouraged many of their 8,000 followers to head for the exits early – would not have done anything to convince those who view Matthias Jaissle, the head coach, with ambivalence to change their minds.
The lack of discipline in their ranks was exposed when Dan Burn scored a late consolation and ended up in a melee with James Tarkowski and Joelinton. But the issues Jaissle, who lamented that “we must improve”, has to correct are for another day: this contest belonged to Everton.
Thierno Barry had provided the finish that secured a trip to Fleetwood in December and what an opportunity it is for Moyes to make Everton semi-finalists in this competition for the first time since 2016. Whether Grealish will have a part to play in it remains to be seen.
The last thing Everton needed on a night of such importance was a distraction. Grealish will have a tough job mending relations, particularly with Moyes, but there was a paradox: though he had caused a major issue for 90 minutes he became an irrelevance.
Andy Hunter of the Guardian also observed that Grealish was not missed because the rest of the Blues’ squad did not let down their manager.
The biggest night in Everton’s season started with a big call from David Moyes and demanded a big performance from his players. With the exception of Jack Grealish, they did not let him down.
A quarter-final at Fleetwood Town is their prize after a clinical, committed display shattered Newcastle’s hopes of lifting the Carabao Cup for a second time in three seasons.
Newcastle dominated spells of the fourth round tie and the stats – registering 28 shots to Everton’s 11, although only nine visiting attempts were on target – but individual defensive errors and an ineffective attack proved a ruinous combination.
Matthias Jaissle denied his team are a soft touch, despite persuasive evidence to the contrary, yet called Newcastle “naive” and the defeat, in front of almost 8,000 of their fans, “shocking”. Andy Burnham was among the many Evertonians in attendance grateful for Newcastle’s generosity.
James Garner, with his first goal of the season, Hayden Hackney, with his first goal for the club, and Thierno Barry were on target to take Everton into the last eight of a competition they have never won. Jordan Pickford was in commanding form against his old adversaries while Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall ran the show from midfield. But it was the absent Grealish who dominated the buildup after Everton announced he had been dropped for disciplinary reasons.
Grealish is understood to have missed training on Monday without permission. Despite the importance of the fixture and the limited options at his disposal, and the playmaker’s subsequent return to training, Moyes demonstrated that no player is bigger than the club by banishing the 31-year-old from the game.
The Everton manager later claimed it was “a club decision” but it was taken by him and the chief executive, Angus Kinnear. Ultimately, and no doubt to Grealish’s great relief, he was not missed.
Lewis Steele of the Daily Mail went as far as declaring that Everton don’t need Grealish right now.
Hard graft, humility and fighting for team-mates: three qualities not shown by a certain Jack Grealish this week.
They are also a trio of traits demanded by the Premier League’s most experienced boss, David Moyes, who banished the once £100million man Grealish to the naughty step for missing training without permission.
News of his latest act of ill-discipline dominated every conversation on the Merseyside waterfront before this full-blooded contest with Newcastle but Grealish was not missed a jot as his youthful and energetic replacements put on a show.
Goals from James Garner, Hayden Hackney and Thierno Barry were enough to send Moyes and Co to the Carabao Cup quarter-final and within sight of their first trophy since 1995, something the 63-year-old boss and these loyal fans crave above anything.
Moyes made the decision to drop and fine Grealish alongside chief executive Angus Kinnear. It is unknown if he will return for Monday’s league game, also against Newcastle.
Fans around the country have tended to see the Carabao Cup as a chance to save some money in recent years and Everton supporters have grumbled at Moyes and former boss Sean Dyche for having a similar attitude with line-ups. But a full house of 51,894 here – including 8,000 of the travelling Toon army – indicated that both teams were taking this seriously. Both mid-table with inconsistent form, this was a real chance for success.
Even the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, knew that and was in attendance alongside his wife Marie-France. There was an obvious joke to be made around this week’s budget, which has given a helping hand to those in need this winter.
Given the Grealish-shaped hole in Moyes’ team and the obvious lack of numbers in multiple positions, the Everton top brass might have fancied getting in Burnham's ear to get the chancellor’s phone number and ask for a leg-up too.
Moyes has had to muddle through the season with a dearth of outfielders following a botched transfer window, but he has made the best of a tricky situation – one that was not helped by Grealish’s actions.
Any frustration at those off-the-field issues was parked on the night, though.
No Grealish? No problem. The Manchester City loanee, who showed his admirable side earlier in the day when he gave £10,000 to help an ill fan, has let his team-mates down with this latest episode.
But with a collection of young talents thriving, mixed with some soldier-like experienced heads and a boss with an appetite for silverware, Everton do not need Grealish right now.
Ian Whittell of the Times highlighted how a cup run can raise the spirits of beleaguered Blues.
At the end of a week in which Andy Burnham has been wrestling with weighty matters of national importance, the sight of James Garner, Hayden Hackney and Thierno Barry scoring the goals that carried his beloved Everton into the Carabao Cup quarter-finals will have been a welcome relief for the diehard Evertonian.
So too for the leader of their club, David Moyes, who has battled obstacles of his own this season. But after successive league defeats had cast something of a cloud, the hint of silverware on the horizon will have bought him goodwill with a long-suffering Everton public denied a trophy since their 1995 FA Cup win.
Like Burnham, budgets will be on Moyes’ mind, specifically the one for the January transfer window, for which the fan base’s worst fears are that uncertainty over the club’s ownership may mean sales. By then, should things go well up the coast in Fleetwood in the next round, Moyes may well have guided them into the semi-finals of the League Cup — a competition they have never won — for only the third time in the past 39 years.
And in the ECHO, Christopher Beesley also commented how Grealish's omission did not hurt Everton as they marched on to a last eight meeting with the Cod Army.
No Jack Grealish, no problem for Everton as they cruised through to a Carabao Cup quarter-finals date at giantkillers Fleetwood Town by defeating Newcastle United 3-1 at a crackling Hill Dickinson Stadium as Prime Minister Andy Burnham watched on with glee.
Grealish has twice been given a huge vote of confidence by David Moyes, firstly last summer when he was surplus to requirements and again this year on transfer deadline day following a stress fracture injury that kept him sidelined for most of the second half of last season.
While the affable Brummie has proven to be a popular figure both on and off the pitch at Hill Dickinson Stadium, it sounds as though he has badly let his Glaswegian gaffer down by not reporting for duty at a time when the Blues have just 18 outfield players, star man Jarrad Branthwaite out through concussion protocol and Christian Norgaard still way off the pace as he recovers from a pre-season injury.
Although the League Two minnows enjoyed arguably the greatest night in their history when they knocked out Premier League champions Arsenal on penalties on Tuesday night, Moyes’ men will be hoping that lightning doesn’t strike twice on the Lancashire coast as they are now just 90 minutes away from their first semi-final in 11 years since Roberto Martinez’s charges were defeated by Manchester City – during the period that the Abu Dhabi United Group-backed outfit have now been found guilty of conducting their various “sham” finances.