Thierno Barry’s first goal in English football helped Everton to a resounding 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest, writes Jack Cheseldine at the Hill-Dickinson Stadium.
It took until injury time at the end of the first half of his 17th game to finally get off the mark for the Blues – but it was worth the wait. The former Villarreal striker sotted past Matz Sels to give Everton a commanding 2-0 lead at the break.
Everton had earlier taken the lead through a Nikola Milenkovic own goal following a brilliant bit of footwork from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. The 27-year-old drifted inside the box and his cross deflected off Milenkovic leaving Sels rooted to the spot.
Dewsbury-Hall almost doubled Everton’s advantage when he won the ball from Morgan Gibbs-White and drove towards the Forest goal before striking from range, with his effort parried by Sels.
The Blues have won five and drawn two when scoring first in the Premier League this season and looked comfortable with their one-goal lead with Forest struggling to grow into the game.
Igor Jesus came closest for the visitors with his header going wide of the post in what was a lacklustre first-half for Sean Dyche’s side.
Everton doubled their lead moments before half-time with a fast counter-attack. Iliman Ndiaye intercepted the ball and ran towards Sels’s goal, before laying it off to Barry, who slid it calmly into the bottom corner to get his Everton account up and running.
Just seconds earlier Jordan Pickford denied Elliot Anderson who got in behind Jake O’Brien only for his effort to pushed away by England’s number 1.
Everton almost added a third when Jack Grealish’s pass found James Garner, but his tame effort went straight at Selz.
Forest continued their late momentum from the first-half with James Tarkowksi rushing across to block Nico Williams’ shot which resulted in a corner. The set piece was met by Milenkovic but was dealt with by Pickford and Michael Keane.
The visitors almost halved the deficit after Pickford failed to punch away Hudson-Odoi’s cross. The ball fell to substitute Nicolas Dominguez whose effort was blocked on the line by Tarkowski.
Ndiaye was next to come close for Moyes’s side as he drifted inside to see his curling effort tipped over by Sels.
Everton finally got their third with Dewsbury-Hall getting in on the act. Sels flapped at James Garner’s corner that allowed O’Brien to lay it off to Dewsbury-Hall who drilled into the net.
Everton came close in the closing stages with Beto but the damage had already been done to ruin Dyche’s return to the club.
