What a great win. Unless or until we sign a right back in January I would always play Garner in that position as he gives us so much more going forward. Alcaraz in the middle can see a through pass instead of just passing wide and KDH playing deeper is more effective. Moyes’s tactics and substitutions can be very frustrating at times but we are a million times better than we were 12 months ago. Who knows where this season will take us?

Yes, a great win after a scrappy affair. Why was tonight’s outcome so different from Saturday’s?

First, and arguably foremost, the quality of the opposition was very different. Bournemouth are in a very poor run of form and lacked the physical presence imposed by Newcastle. Injuries and suspensions weakened them further.

For our part we coped well in the absence of Keane and Gana. After his early yellow card Tim Iroegbunam did extraordinarily well; staying disciplined in central midfield, making one brilliant tackle in the second half to halt an attack and generally making sensible passes after winning possession. Substituted at half-time on Saturday, tonight he stayed the course and very much looked the part. It is unfortunate he will be suspended for the next game.

Others who caught the eye included Garner and O’Brien. Our outstanding performer was however Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. He was the driving force in midfield, carrying the ball from one half to the other, making quick penetrating passes and working his socks off to keep his team on the front foot. What a tremendous display from a proper footballer!

We have waited a long time to break our Bournemouth hoodoo. We fully deserved to do so last night. All the teams in the bunched mid-table section of the league struggle to put three consecutive wins together. Even two is seen as a substantial achievement. So I guess we can expect the roller coaster to continue. I doubt anyone will be taking for granted the outcome of our next match on Saturday.

Brilliant response by Everton after Saturday’s fiasco, with many stand out performances.
KDH looking the part as an 8 and O’Brien..,just wow.. what a colossal performance, assured and composed and gave us real balance, my man of the match, imagine him and Jarrad as a pairing?

I felt the novelty of Grealish may of been starting to wear off as he hasn’t been doing enough of late, then he pops up with a goal out of nowhere, which was accompanied by a huge surge of relief as I thought Bournemouth were poor and I’m sure the knives would of been out had we not taken advantage.

Iroegbunam much improved with an all energy display after the Newcastle horror show, however Moyes will have to get inventive as he won’t be available for the visit of Forest after five yellow cards.

As for Barry, it seems we’re watching someone learn to play football before our very eyes, he seems to be improving, rather progressively I might add, but his first touch is cumbersome to say the least, nowhere near good enough.

David Moyes, apart from the Spurs and Newcastle defeats has done remarkably well, considering we’re practically without a striker I’d say it’s nothing short of a miracle.
Is he the man TFG see as long term? To take us to the next level? I don’t think that’s a question that can be answered conclusively, but one thing is for sure, I’m looking ahead to Forest on Saturday a lot more confidently.

Great win, I would keep O'Brien at centre half as he now deserves a run playing in his proper position. Let Keane and Tarky battle it out to play alongside him until Jarrod returns. Would love to see Jake and Jarrod as our 2 central defenders before the end of the season. Enjoyed seeing KDH playing deeper and thought he was the best player on the pitch.Good to see both him and Alcaraz playing together centrally,hope Moyes keeps Alcaraz in the side for the forest game.Bring back Garner for the suspended Irogbunam and give Paterson if fit a chance at right back.

I think we were by far the better team, but admittedly the opposition were not up to much. I agree that Jake should get a run in his favoured position, he didn’t put a foot wrong tonight. Onwards and upwards!

Well done to the manager and team.

David Moyes drives me mad with his tactical rigidity, stubborness in selection and refusal to use his subs. But this from the BBC match report made me think.

“Since the Scottish boss' first away game back in charge of Everton in January, only Arsenal (30) have won more away Premier League points than Everton (27) and no side has won more away games in that time than the Toffees (8).”

Overall, he has done well with what he has. Right now, he is dealing with a barebones squad due to injures and suspensions so TFG need to back him in the January transfer window.

Dewsbury-Hall played well at No.8 because that it his preferred position, Alcaraz is the best option at No.10 (provided he presses) and it was right to put Tim right back in after his nightmare game.

The manager tends to stumble into formation changes that work, as was the case last night. Being forced to select Garner at right-back and moving O’Brien to centre half made a big difference to where we could set up the defensive line.

Headline might be tough on first time reader, Lyndon…

I said on TW that this might me a forced change that actually benefits us, and it did as KDH as far more impressive as an 8 than a 10. Alcaraz also showed some good signs and I was pleased to see McNeil get a run in the No.10 position for the closing stages...especially as he seemed to be awake this time!

I was really, really happy with the performance last night, everyone tried to play as we showed good intent and were not just sitting back and pumping the ball long. Considering the injuries we have, it was much better than I expected.

It was a massive win and sends us into the Forest game with confidence and looking up the table rather than down.

Well done everyone.

Glad of the win against Bournemouth.

He's a strange one Moysee.
Give him options and he is prone to make the wrong selections and choose the wrong tactics, but there have been few managers down the years who could have pulled out better results when he down to the bare 11/12. Take away the headaches which naturally come from having a large pool of players and he is so incredibly good at getting the best out of the small group available to him. I firmly believe he would have won trophies back in the day when you were only allowed one sub.

Absolutely made up with last nights result. Just as I felt we were never at any stage going to beat Newcastle. I never at any stage thought we wouldnt win last night. We were never dazzling but we were always in charge.

Special mention to James Tarkowski and Tim Iroegbunam. Two players I personally was hugely critical of after the Newcastle game. We had better players last night, but after what could have been confidence draining Weston's on Saturday, both men bounced back to give really good performances. That takes character.

I think we sll saw this game in much the same light, forced changes put Garner LB and Jake in the middle, but Moyes stuck with Tim, who coped tonight against a lacklustre Cherries, the next game might have settled him more but for his suspension.

Charly did add some energy and variation, deserves to keep a place, I can only endorse the view that KDH ran the show really well, industry and skilful football, not the best opposition, but we looked good going forwards, plenty of threat.

Poor Barry cant buy a goal, I pray one comes soon for him, I think his effort alone deserves something, even a deflected shot, which was all that shaded this game to a win tonight.

Onwards to Saturday, and a nod to the vociferous away fans, always there, always singing...

The team was set up right and worked more as a unit.This was totally lacking against Newcsstle, who did exactly that.

One small but discernible difference in our playing under Moyes compared to previous regimes is that the players are all round just more confident and therefore attempt (and mostly complete) a lot more short forward passes at difficult angles. It makes our football much better to watch. This is partly down to having better technical players like KDH, Ndiaye, Grealish etc but I also notice it with Tim and Garner and others. Long may it continue.

Results breed confidence and give a positive momentum. We're not quite competitive in every game yet but we're a darn sight further down that road than we have been for a few years now.

I didn't realise that was our first win at Bournemouth in the league until I was half way home. Talksport managed to spend 2 hours discussing Spurs and Newcastle, a fair chunk on City, then reluctantly squeezed about 30 seconds into their schedule to talk about Everton.

Bournemouth were poor and in the second half I felt like it was only a matter of time (despite our 2 best players having off days). O'brien was a class act - please don't use him at fullback again Moyes. I know we aren't blessed with available midfielders, but Garner should remain at RB for now.

What a fantastic feeling to win away from home. I was in bed by midnight, albeit still buzzing, but most travelling blues would've arrived home not long before the alarm clock gets them up for work. I don't know how they do it.

What I loved was when we scored there wasn’t any shutting up shop, they were still going for it - away from home and all.
But, with Tim suspended for Forest, am I right in saying we have just 13 fully PL experienced players available?
Maybe we’re less the Dogs of War and more a Band of Brothers these days.

I think we need to take the praise for the manager up a notch. He took over a team that had scored what was it, one goal in ten games? Since then, get this, we have the highest number of away wins in the division. Just drink that in. so I think we need to put to bed all this talk after wins of 'he's a decent manager but..'. No, he's been an outstanding appointment.l

And just look at KDH.

My take on the difference between the Newcastle game and last night was that we were set up to play on the front foot last night and that brought the success. You could argue that the opposition was poor on the night and I would agree but you can only play against what is before you. It is our (Moyes) instruction on these away matches that do the trick. He should use the same philosophy for home matches and see where that takes us. You never know.

I agree with others who said that Garner fits nicely in at RB and should stay there for time being with Jake fitting in well in central defence. I think problem solved there.

KDH behind Alcaraz seemed to work well so maybe it is one to try again, particularly against better oposition.

Even though it was always going to be a scrappy match due to missing players we were far the better team and it would have been unjust had we come away with just one point.

Having previously lived and worked on the south coast and travelled back north frequently my thoughts went out to our wonderful travelling fans, particularly as it was a night match, as their journey home would not have beeen pleasant or probably easy. Great support as usual under trying circumstances. Well done.

‘Team win - players good - me so happy’

‘Team lose - players bad must never play again - me so angry - end of world’

‘Team win - same players good now - me so happy’

Hilarious

Good Calls on Garner and O’Brien.
I personally thought that O’Brien had his best game yet, in a not so Blue shirt !

I was totally against Garner playing right back as opposed to to midfield.. how opinions change!
He looks so composed and assured in the RB position and can advance forward to the benifit of the team.

KDH also upped his game a notch.
Does anyone think that we should or could recall Harrison Armstrong, to replace Garner in midfield ?

Paul 19 - Moyes can bring back Armstrong, and he’d slot straight in, even though I think he’s more of a KDH midfielder than a Garner. The issue for Moyes is, when Gueye comes back early to mid Jan, and Röhl is back, (and stays fit), where in the pecking order is Armstrong for the rest of the season? On the bench for most of it, probably. His best option might be to continue developing at Preston and we look at getting a bespoke RB in Jan.

Peter Fancy - "Team stink the place out and get hammered. I go into hiding and get all outraged at the those not happy clapping shit show".

"Team play well and win. I try to ruin every victory thread because I get all outraged when those who refused to happy clap shit shows, now want to give credit for decent win and performance.... "

"I`m so ANGREEEE!!!"

John Rafferty, will I’m sure, have been writing that sensible assessment of the difference in quality between our last two opponents on the very long journey home.

I’m glad those incredible away supporters got something to celebrate, and looking at our away record since David Moyes returned, then it’s no wonder those very happy, loyal supporters, were singing his name at the end.

I thought the difference between the two games was that there was a lot less space between the lines, and just having a player at fullback who can run forward, also seemed to give us a lot more balance.

I don’t know if the bigger pitch at Bramley-Moore, has got anything to do with it but, where Newcastle, found a lot of space, the gaps and the space in between our lines last night were not so big, and this makes a massive difference.

Give credit when it’s due, and constructive criticism, when it’s needed Darren, I just wish our team could be that consistent!

I fear you’re right about the wide spaces at BMD, Anthony, and Forest just showed how to exploit those spaces at Anfield. Until we get more experienced personnel in January, teams will take from Spurs and Newcastle can get at us there: set-pieces and through the middle. The Forest game could be a really nerve-wracking Dyche vs Moyes chess game.
I’d take a late, late 1-0 with a deflection off Barry’s arse.

One other thing which I think is absolutely massive (like as big as nearly everything else) comes to the fore in a couple of posts.

Moyes, likes working with a small squad of players, (Darren&10) and he his very good at it. But if he is to take himself and Everton, to that higher level, (I’m aware it’s going to take a bit of time) then it is absolutely imperative that he changes, with regards this aspect of how he has always seemed to manage his football teams, imo.

John@20, gives a very reasonable opinion of why he thinks Harrison Armstrong, should continue developing at Preston, but I hate this thing about pecking order because we have simply got to make ‘our squad’ a lot stronger and competitive if we really want to compete.

I think as well Tony we cannot play a high line without a speedy centre back, something we could do last night, but not in the last two home games. So we could really squeeze the space last night. I think once we have our speedy centre backs KDH and Grealish will really come into their own, their ability to receive the ball and move it on under pressure will be a huge plus.

Great win at another bogey ground and another 3 points.
I usually wear Everton socks, underpants (🤣) shirt, badges and Everton watch. Only wore the watch against UTD - wore it all for Newcastle game - wore the watch only last night - er any advice for Forest game 😳💙
Well done Moyes and players let’s keep it going

All those looking for Garner to remain at right-back for our next game against Forest are most likely to be disappointed. As our holding midfield is decimated with suspensions to Gueye and to Tim plus an injury to Rohl therefore Moyes has little choice than to play Garner back in midfield alongside KDH.
Assuming Keane’s injury was only minor and he is available then I would be fairly sure that Moyes will return O’Brien to the right-back spot for this game.
If Keane wasn’t fit then an opportunity arises for Patterson to play there…not something that will particularly appeal to Moyes (from all the signs so far) but one he may not be able to avoid.
Once we come through the suspensions and injuries in midfield then Moyes may look again at Jimmy playing right-back although my own preference would be for us to buy a genuine right-back in January and use Jimmy there only when necessary so he can continue to build his career as a midfield player.
One player who deserves a special mention at this stage is KDH…equally adept at playing as a number 8 or number 10 he reminds me of our own mini version of Declan Rice…I know those are big shoes to fill and he has a long way to go yet but apart from skill he has the stamina and temperament required so I’m hopeful that he will continue down that same road.

I hope you’re correct Kevin, because I honestly don’t believe we are that faraway, although it must be said that I will forever be an optimist, with regards Everton Football Club.

I thought we got caught between two stools against Newcastle, and when this happens, only the people on the sidelines can change it, but once again, my only real criticism of David Moyes, has been explained in an earlier post.

I’d also love him to be a bit braver sometimes but let’s get that real pace into the middle of our defence first

I hope you’re correct Kevin, because I honestly don’t believe we are that faraway, although it must be said that I will forever be an optimist, with regards Everton Football Club.

I thought we got caught between two stools against Newcastle, and when this happens, only the people on the sidelines can change it, but once again, my only real criticism of David Moyes, has been explained in an earlier post.

I’d also love him to be a bit braver sometimes but let’s get that real pace into the middle of our defence first

As always Lyndon a very balanced and well written summary of the match.

Agree with most posters particularly praising Jake and KDH. I thought the back 4 looked very solid.

I am concerned about Ndiaye though who has had a couple of below par showings. My view is his thoughts are already on Afcon but some may be right that he is being marked out of the game and may be tired.

For Forest,

Leave Garner at RB

Pair Alcaraz with KDH

Bring Ndiaye to the middle

Start Dibling

Great win, and attitude and character. by Everton.
Plenyy of if and why on Saturday night.
Credit is due and well done Moyes.

Saturday, and Everton are down yo the bare bones, of a squad.

Moyes will know who he xan trust to put in a big shift v Forest.

Id love if Armstrong could be picked, as he seems fearless, intelligent with and with out the ball, and I'm my view the best to come through since Rooney, in terms of his all round game.

Looks like Dibbling, Hard to judge based on his minutes this season.

I don't see Patterson starting, so if Dibbling starts, hopefully he will play for the Everton shirt, and make Moyes take note.

But if Keane recovers, then, perhaps, he plays OBrien at RB? That becomes a weakness for Forest to exploit like other teans have done this season.

It looks like a cracking game, and 3 points, would be very welcome, and a good home win for Everton.

Tony (22) Thanks Tony, you are correct. I did write that on the way home. I actually started before midnight, got distracted and as you can see finished just before 1.00 a.m.

Arriving home at 3.40 a.m it was a long day including over twelve hours on the coach partly owing to traffic congestion. But it was great! Any win on the road makes it all worthwhile. The longer the journey the more worthwhile it all seems.

I know you don’t do it for praise John, but I think one of the main reasons why Everton, have remained in the premier league, is because of the absolutely fanatical and loyal fanbase, that the club is very lucky to have.

Words that don’t apply to the people who held some of the highest positions in the club, definitely apply to the incredible Evertonians, who refused to accept our fate, when it became so perilous.

You did not desert me my brothers in arms… and this definitely applies more to some people John, because I know you never will🙏

I should have added when it comes to Everton, just incase people get the wrong impression!

This was a very welcome and encouraging performance.

Far from perfect, but you don’t need to be perfect to get 3 points.

Looking forward to Saturday now, and how Moyes handles some interesting selection decisions.

I would like to see Dibling start.

John, 12 hours on a coach to and from a ground where we haven’t won, on a miserable Tuesday evening in December- and on the off-chance of a win or draw? That deserves a seat on the Board, never mind the bus.

Darren#27

I think 30 years of frustration has alot to do with it.We Want to see the team do and play well and naturally when they don't show up we go ape, as the 30 years frustration comes to the fore.

John - 33 - I really respect and admire you mate. True blue.