Things are beginning to get a little twitchy for Nottingham Forest and Sean Dyche. Forest have made strides under Ange Postecoglou’s successor but after a miserable defeat by Everton, Dyche’s previous club, it is now three straight defeats and a bruising January run of fixtures are on the horizon. Five of their next six matches are away, including a trip to West Ham, now only four points behind Forest. For David Moyes and his threadbare squad, this was a triumph, goals by the former Forest loanee James Garner and Thierno Barry earning a deserved victory.
Forest submitted a complaint to Professional Game Match Officials, the referees’ body, regarding the officiating in the defeat at home by Manchester City at the weekend. The club were adamant significant decisions counted against them and requested the audio between on-pitch officials that determined key moments. But Forest only had themselves to blame for a lethargic start against an Everton side that arrived without a victory or even a goal since the reverse fixture at Hill Dickinson Stadium almost four weeks ago.
That day Everton earned a 3-0 win, a Nikola Milenkovic own goal inside two minutes setting the tone, and here it did not take too much longer for them to again seize the lead. After a forgettable opening, Everton produced the first real moment of quality, Dwight McNeil, a January target for Dyche who has twice previously worked with the winger, slipping Garner in with a cute pass. Garner wriggled goal-side of Morgan Gibbs-White and tucked his shot into the far corner to open the scoring against the club where he spent 18 months on loan, clinching promotion via the Championship playoffs under Steve Cooper in 2022. Garner refused to celebrate.
