With barely any time to recover from Tuesday’s victory at Bournemouth, Everton faced Nottingham Forest. Sean Dyche returned to Merseyside to face the Toffees, with his team looking to pick up valuable points in their ongoing relegation battle. Without the suspended Tim Iroegbunam, David Moyes was fortunate to have Michael Keane back fit, allowing James Garner to return to the middle.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was recently nominated for Player of the Month for November. He began his quest for December’s edition by firing the ball dangerously across Nottingham Forest’s goal, flicking off Milenkovic’s head to fire Everton into the lead in the opening minutes. It was the second week running that Hill Dickinson Stadium saw an early goal, albeit in favour of the Toffees on this occasion. A goal to the good, Everton looked to control proceedings with and without the ball, denying Forest’s conductors any real opportunities. Dewsbury-Hall nearly had his second goal contribution in the first few minutes, as he recovered the ball in a dangerous area and fired low towards Matz Sels.
Sean Dyche’s men knocked on the door for the final 20 minutes of the half, taking advantage of Everton’s sloppy passes. The home side were looking to shut up shop until the break, with Jordan Pickford palming Elliot Anderson’s strike away from goal — easily their best chance of the spell. However, Illiman Ndiaye picked up the ball in his own half and began his trademark mazy run down the centre of the pitch, evading defenders with ease and bearing down on goal in first-half stoppage time. Carlos Alcaraz and Thierno Barry kept up and split, giving the Senegalese winger two clear options. He opted for Barry, and the young forward converted for his first goal in Royal Blue, sending the home crowd into a frenzy. The relief was palpable, as the players rushed towards him, congratulating the number 11 one by one.
The second goal allowed Everton to manoeuvre the second half with relative ease. Ironically, Dyche felt obliged to make a triple substitution at the break. It was rare that he made that amount of changes during the whole 90 in his Everton stint. None of those were able to impact the game, and the Blues continued to control, searching for a third to truly kill the contest. Jack Grealish, who had an uncharacteristically quiet afternoon, still created two decent opportunities as he laid the ball back to Garner and Dewsbury-Hall, who were only able to roll the ball towards Sels in goal and strike the outside of the post respectively.
In between those efforts came Forest’s only real chance to get themselves back into the game. Jordan Pickford’s weak punch from Callum Hudson-Odoi’s cross dropped at the feet of Tarkowski, who couldn’t clear. The ball rolled towards Nicolas Dominguez, and his attempt was blocked by Tarkowski’s outstretched leg, as he had dropped back to protect the empty net.
Moments after Ndiaye’s curling effort from the right was denied by Sels in the 78th minute, Everton finally found the third. From a corner on the left, the Belgian goalkeeper was unable to clear as Jake O’Brien pounced to poke the ball back towards Dewsbury-Hall, who capped his terrific afternoon off with a goal against his former rivals. His low-driven strike ensured that the Blues rose to 5th, continuing an impressive run of four wins from five. With his forward now up and running and key players in form, Moyes can now attack the tricky festive period and look up the ladder.
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