McNeil Fells Forest

I love it when we won you know. Especially when we win against a team we should already be ahead of if the world was right.

Nottingham Forest is a game Everton should be winning anyway and we looked alright for most of the game, there were a few occasions where I worried our defence had fallen asleep momentarily and let them in but overall I thought we defended brilliantly. Tarky and Branthwaite were giants at the back once again and kept Chris Woods quiet all game. I don't think there was a single instance where I was worried one of them wouldn't win their duels.

Dwight McNeil was back to his best and the more confident Mykolenko gets, the better we look down the left. I thought the two in midfield were brilliant as well and it showed with just how many times they would win the ball back and find passed forwards. Ashley Young only had one wobble when he game away a pointless free-kick out wide when he was beaten for pace by Anthony Elanga.

Beto and Doucoure didn't quite connect well enough for my liking though, it didn't always seem like they were on the same page. A couple of times, Doucoure put in a cross that was too short as Beto was making his way towards the back post. I put that down to Beto's lack of game time more than anything.

Harrison was much more on it this time around, he had a better game than last week against Manchester United, although sometimes his decision making does frustrate me a bit, he showed moments of quality with a slight lack in end product, although he can claim an assist for McNeil's winner tonight.

I wasn't too surprised by the substitution Sean Dyche made either, but I would have liked to see maybe one more towards the end as we did look a bit tired. Youssef Chermiti came on and battled well with the defence although he wasn't really given a lot to work with since, by the time he was brought on, we were reduced to lumping the ball forward just to get it away from our own area.

Lastly, barring a couple of times when his communication with Mykolenko went wrong and it looked like neither of them knew what to do with a loose ball, Jordan Pickford played brilliantly again. Nothing was getting past Pickford tonight and he showed real bravery to come flying out at the feet of the Forest player to block the shot at point-blank range. Last time he did that, someone died, so he was brave to put himself in the firing line of the media again as well.

Overall it was a great, sturdy performance from Everton against a team that could have stung us, we move off the bottom and right back in to the mix with a clear pathway out of the pit that the Premier League so lovingly kicked us into. We'll be out of this in no time with everyone around us coming up against strong opposition in the next few weeks. We  have our own tough run-in but the way we're playing at the moment, we should be able to pick up points and we'll surprise a few I'm sure.

Come On You Blues!!