The Toffees travelled to Deepdale, Preston after securing an opening day Premier league win at the weekend (for the first time in five years) after beating Crystal Palace 2-0.
There was a lot of fans hoping that David Moyes, who was returning to the place where he finished his playing career and started his managerial one, would name a strong Everton line up and he duly did.In from the victory over Crystal Palace came Michael Keane for Jarrad Branthwaite, Tyler Dibling for Tyrique George and James Garner for Hayden Hackney who missed out with a reported knock from the weekends game. Jarrad Branthwaite missed out as part of his planned minutes management that has been seen through pre-season and will no doubt continue.
The Toffees started the game in firm control and possession was no problem for us as we were able to get on the ball and push Preston back into their defensive third for the majority of the opening spell. There wasn’t too much though troubling the keeper with Tyler Dibling & Michael Keane having efforts that missed the target and Thierno Barry finding the target but nothing to worry Lee Nicholls who comfortably saved.
That changed though in the 25th minute when the Toffees took the lead through a well worked goal by Thierno Barry.
Dewsbury Hall was able to pick out Mykolenko’s deep run in the left hand half space and he was able to square a simple pass to the well placed Thierno Barry , who was in between two Preston defenders in the centre of the box to then execute a fine finish to the move and put the Blues ahead. 1-0
Everton continued to dominate possession but again couldn’t quite create opportunities to fully test the Preston keeper any further and then in the 39th minute Preston had their first real attempt to mention when Leroy put a left footed shot from the centre of the box too high to test Jordan Pickford who had largely been a spectator in the match so far.
Tyler dibling had his first significant contribution just before half time when he found himself on the opposite side of the box to hit a nice shot low towards the bottom corner only for Nicholls to make a good save. 1-0 to the Toffees at the break.
1st Half
0.15 XG 1.36
31% Ball Possession 69%
2 Total shots 15
0 Shots on Target 5
0 Big Chances 2
Neither side made any changes at the interval and it took only a few minutes for the Toffees to continue on from the 1st half and start to threaten the Preston goal.
There was a 3 on 2 breakaway and Barry fed a ball down the side of the box for Dewsbury Hall who forced a save from the Preston keeper with the angle a bit against the blues midfielder to seriously threaten another goal.The blues were at it again on the 52nd minute and Ndiaye was the architect this time when he cut back onto his right foot from out wide on the left of the area and put a lovely cross in for Barry who headed just wide of the left hand post.
You could sense it was just a matter of time before the blues notched another goal and it wasn’t too long after that Barry chance that they did and again it was Thierno Barry at the end of things. The play came once more down the left hand side and KDH combined with Illi for a nice give & go and KDH forced another good save from the keeper but he could only push it into the path of the onrushing Barry who made contact with the ball to force it over the line and put the blues two up. The score now was more reflective of the dominance the blues had shown and Harrison Armstrong continued on from his excellent 2nd half performance vs Crystal Palace and was involved in most things in the midfield area along with Dewsbury Hall.
Preston had their first real opportunity to get back into the game when a crowded penalty box saw a James Tarkowski headed clearance acrobatically returned with power by Callum Lang who had not long entered the action for Preston. Jordan Pickford was forced into his first real save of the game and he pushed out the effort from Lang.
It would prove to be the only real save England’s number 1 goalkeeper would have to make however he showed his ability to help launch attacks for the blues when in the 71st minute he picked out KDH with a lovely throw right into the midfielders path.
Kiernan found substitute Brennan Johnson (who had come on after 64 minutes for James Garner), after he made a lovely penetrating run in the right hand half space and Brennan had the vision to see Barry in the centre of goal and duly slid the ball across for Thierno to notch his hat trick and put Everton 3-0 up.
The win over Preston was to end a run that Everton had been on that stretched back to September 2020 when Dominic Calvert Lewin bagged a hat trick at Home to West Brom in a 5-2 win under Carlo Ancelotti. No Everton player had notched a hat trick since then but it was just reward for a totally dominant display from the blues and also from Thierno himself.
Nathan Patterson had entered the action along with Johnson in the 64th minute with Tyler Dibling making way. Tyler had been neat & tidy and had a decent outing with his first half shot being his stand out moment in the game.
Everton were purring at this point and they were also not letting up. Just a minute later the blues were again on the attack and Thierno Barry, not content with his hat trick, showed the desire so many have wanted to see from him more often when he won the ball back for the blues by dispossessing Preston and then picking out another fine run from Brennan Johnson on the right. Brennan found the back of the net, placing through the keepers legs with a finish reminiscent of those he used to regularly get for Spurs a couple of seasons ago when he finished as their leading goalscorer.
It was Brennans first goal in 33 games but he has already started to show exactly why the blues wanted him and provide some much needed pace out wide with threatening runs that worry opposition defences.That marked a goal and assist for Brennan who had only been on for 8 minutes and he became the first Everton player to score and assist off the bench since Enner Valencia did so back in March 2017 vs Hull.
Everton made some further changes on the 81st minute with KDH & Illi going off for Charly Alcaraz and Tyrique George and then in the 82nd minute the man of the match Thierno Barry was replaced to an ovation from the near 6,000 strong Everton away end and Adam Aznou entered the field.
Everton had some further shots through Armstrong & George but after a couple of minutes of added time the match finished with us comfortably taking our place in the next round with a fine 4-0 win.
2nd Half
0.2 XG 2.58
34% Ball Possession 66%
3 Total shots 14
1 Shots on Target 5
0 Big Chances 3
Overall
0.34 XG 3.94
32% Ball Possession 68%
5 Total shots 29
1 Shots on Target 10
0 Big Chances 5
Post match the draw for the next round was made by Jermaine Beckford & Jamie Redknapp and the Blues were given a Home tie against Wolves and a chance for us to put right last years poor away performance to the same team in the same round.
Attendance :-16,834
Referee : Tony Harrington
Next up for Everton is a trip to Bournemouth on Saturday 29th August at 3pm to take on a rested cherries side in their first home game of the new league campaign
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