Everton match verdict after the Premier League match against Brighton & Hove Albion at Hill Dickinson Stadium
Joe Thomas is the Everton FC correspondent for the Liverpool ECHO. He follows the Blues home and away, providing match reports, analysis and insight into events at Goodison Park, Finch Farm and beyond. Joe spent more than a decade covering news on Merseyside, working on award-winning investigations and extensively covering matters related to the Hillsborough tragedy - including the recent criminal prosecutions. Always grateful for tips and feedback, he can be contacted at joe.thomas@reachplc.com and on Twitter via @joe_thomas18
David Moyes interacts with James Garner during the Premier League match between Everton and Brighton & Hove Albion at Hill Dickinson Stadium on August 24, 2025
(Image: Michael Regan/Getty Images)
As almost 15,000 supporters roared his name from the mighty South Stand, David Moyes waved his hands and gestured for his players to keep their composure. His side was 2-0 up and he wanted it to stay that way. He heard the fans though. And he understood what the moment meant to them - because it meant so much to him, too.
For years it felt as though Everton could not have anything nice. As the club fought points deductions and backroom crises to avoid a drop from the Premier League, there were times when the rise of the club’s state-of-the-art stadium felt like a cruel irony. Every success was tarnished by the threat of bigger problems.
But the new dawn supporters looked to during those challenging campaigns is now here. And with it, the Blues have a start they could only have dreamt of.
Life on the banks of the Mersey began with three valuable points secured under a heady atmosphere of joy, excitement and anxiety. They were won with a sprinkling of magic from the club’s three most talented stars. After a summer of nerves over how Everton would transition into their new home, 50,000 Blues and a squad of 20 players now have a day they will never forget - for all the right reasons.
Among those who will go to sleep with a smile on their face is Moyes. For all that he attempted to play down his personal excitement, and for all he attempted to stress how tough the move from Goodison Park would be, he was immensely satisfied at this win over Brighton.
It very easily could have been a different story - another tale of missed opportunity and disappointment, the likes of which those associated with this club have become used to.
Everton rode their luck in this fixture and Moyes’ belief this side still needs significant help in the final days of the transfer window will not have been altered by what he saw at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
In the first half alone, the visitors threatened to ruin the big day - just as they did 12 months ago when they showed a merciless streak as Goodison launched her final season. Such ruthlessness was missing on Sunday afternoon though. When Kaoru Mitoma lifted the ball over the heads of James Tarkowski and Michael Keane he had time - and a spare man to support him. Instead he opted for an early goal of the season contender and, flush as his effort was, he was denied by the crossbar.
Minutes later Idrissa Gueye was brushed off the ball down the Everton left and Yankuba Minteh found Danny Welbeck unmarked inside the six-yard box. He screwed his effort over. The half ended in a similar vein. The deflection was so severe Everton could have claimed misfortune had Jan Paul van Hecke’s long-range effort not thundered off the post but it was Tarkowski’s intervention to clear the rebound that was superb and necessary.
The hero of that moment had his head in his hands as he watched Matt O’Riley collect his back pass and attempt to round Jordan Pickford on half-time. The England number one did what he has done so often through the torrid times of recent years - he saved Everton. He would do so again before Stuart Attwell blew the final whistle.
Between those efforts against the Everton woodwork, Hill Dickinson Stadium had its moment. Before the match, fireworks exploded from the roof of the ground as Z-Cars blared. When Iliman Ndiaye broke the deadlock on the 21st minute the ground exploded in electric ecstasy.
It was not just the happiness of Everton taking the lead that sparked such an emphatic reaction. It was the manner in which the goal came. Recent seasons have been a turgid march to survival. With the exception of a few flourishes from Ndiaye there has been little to enjoy about the limp to the Liverpool waterfront.
This was a goal befitting a new era for this club. It came courtesy of the biggest symbol of the change in fortunes mustered this summer - new arrival Jack Grealish. A team goal, it started with Thierno Barry holding the ball up before finding Ndiaye on the right. Everton spread play across the pitch - Ndiaye to Gueye, Gueye to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. Dewsbury-Hall then sent Grealish down the left and, having tormented Mats Wieffer already in the game, he broke into the box and picked out Ndiaye at the back post. Cue the pandemonium.
The message from Moyes at half-time would have been to avoid complacency - as perhaps had been the problem when Tarkowski almost gifted Brighton an equaliser moments before the break. It would also have been to take this game out of the hands of chance.
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Everton were poor at Leeds United in their opening defeat on Monday but had ridden the Elland Road storm before losing to a controversial penalty. Bad luck has haunted Everton for a while so do not give it a chance to ruin this first game in a new chapter for the club, Moyes would have stressed.
His players responded to that message with perfection. Two minutes after the break the lead was doubled - Grealish with another assist though the quality in this instance came from the right boot of makeshift left back James Garner, who fired beyond Bart Verbruggen from distance to give Everton much-needed breathing space.
It allowed the home supporters to enjoy the occasion as thoughts turned to making the most of a milestone day - hence the chants directed towards their saviour Moyes 10 minutes later. The defining point of his return was his celebration with the away end in a defiant win at Brighton in January that moved Everton away from the bottom three. He had Ndiaye to thank that day - the Senegal international celebrating his match winner by flapping his arms to mock the Seagulls. The same player repeated that dance after his opening goal.
This being Everton, there was still late drama when Dewsbury-Hall’s handball led to a late penalty. But Welbeck’s effort was saved by Pickford and a nervy finale was avoided
Moyes will take lessons from this win. He knew this game could have gone, as Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler said, “in a different direction”.
But there is satisfaction to be taken from this too - including in some of his decision-making. Tim Iroegbunam fought hard in the middle, Garner did enough at left back and Barry, who was a surprise pick ahead of Beto, was crucial in the build-up to both goals. Grealish was the catalyst for so much of what was good in this performance - and there were positives to take from it - and deserved his ovation when he was taken off. This was a first win in a new home with crucial support from a cast of new players. But it was overseen by an old favourite in the dugout and delivered through, in Ndiaye and Pickford, the influence of two old heroes.
Hard work lies ahead for Everton, with the club still needing improvements beyond the expected arrival of Tyler Dibling before the transfer window shuts. But for now, for once, the club has an occasion it can savour after a day that will not easily be forgotten by those lucky enough to enjoy it.