Barry grabs cup hat-trick as Everton swat Preston aside

It’s been a while since Everton travelled to a lower-division side in the League Cup and emphatically stamped their Premier League authority on the opposition. Six years, in fact when they thumped Fleetwood 5-2 — coincidentally the last season in which a Blues player scored a hat-trick, also in this competition, when Dominic Calvert-Lewin grabbed his second of the 2020/21 campaign under Carlo Ancelotti.

Tonight, at Deepdale, Thierno Barry took another huge step in proving that he is ready to stake a strong claim for being Everton’s undisputed first-choice striker. The Frenchman scored three times as David Moyes’s men powered into an unassailable lead over Preston before he provided the assist for Brennan Johnson to register his first goal in royal blue.

Perhaps significantly, Beto, swapped in and out with Barry with regularity last season, remained on the bench as an unused substitute; as, too, did Jake O’Brien, signalling, perhaps, that both might be on the move before next week’s transfer deadline.

True to form, Moyes insisted afterwards that this handsome 4-0 victory was not a reason for anyone to get carried away given how, in his words, "work we still have to do [in the market]… Our squad's not big enough; we need to get more quality in some areas."

However, just as was the case on Saturday in the opening-day win over Crystal Palace, there was plenty about which fans can optimistic… provided, of course, that none of the Toffees’ key players are sold between now and next Tuesday evening.

At times, this felt almost like a practice match or pre-season friendly, not least with Everton’s straight-from-the-training-ground first goal, beautifully crafted by Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Vitalii Mykolenko for Barry to execute a simple close-range finish.

The Blues were often complacent against their Championship hosts, particularly when through on goal, as both Barry and Iliman Ndiaye found themselves in the first half, and, at times, a little slap-dash in possession. But the result was never really in doubt, even when Jordan Pickford was called upon to make his only real save of the night to parry Callum Lang’s spectacular overhead kick with the score at 2–0 mid-way through the second period.

Indeed, it probably should have been a good deal more emphatic, not that anyone — especially Barry — will really mind. Everton had set their stall out early that they were going to attack and assert their superiority.

Dewsbury-Hall, Ndiaye, Barry and Tyler Dibling either had shots saved or blocked in the opening quarter of an hour before Dewsbury-Hall dissected the defence with a through-ball for Barry but, under pressure from a defender, he scuffed a tame shot at goalkeeper Lee Nicholls.

However, Everton’s No 8 would play a key role in the opener, lifting a perfect ball over the top to meet Mykolenko’s perfectly-timed run and the Ukrainian had the awareness to square it neatly where Barry couldn’t miss.

Earlier, Delano Burgzorg had forced the first stop from Pickford and later in the half, a slip by Merlin Röhl almost allowed Preston in but, thankfully, Leo Leroy smashed his shot over the crossbar.

Normal service quickly resumed, though, and Dibling, who was competent if a little quiet on the night, had the final chance of the first half with a superb turn and shot that Nicholls did very well to stop down by his near post with a firm hand.

And there was no let-up from Everton after the break. A three-on-two break ended with Nicholls denying Dewsbury-Hall, Mykolenko raking over from distance and Barry narrowly missing the target with a strong downward header from Ndiaye’s cross.

The second goal arrived, though, just before the hour mark and it was another finely crafted effort. Ndiaye slipped Dewsbury-Hall in near the byline and when his strike across the face of goal was parried by the keeper, the ball fell kindly for Barry to knock home first-time.

Then, after James Garner and Dibling had gone off to be replaced by Nathan Patterson and Johnson, Mykolenko should have had his second assist of the night when he played Ndiaye clean through with a sublime pass but the Senegalese allowed two defenders to catch him up and close him down and the chance was lost.

That just delayed the inevitable, however. With 20 minutes left, Pickford bowled a smart ball out to Dewsbury-Hall in the centre-circle and he, in turn, threaded it through the defence for Johnson to advance into the box and then slide it across goal for the arriving Barry to complete his treble.

Preston barely had time to catch their breath before it was four. Barry easily stole the ball off Alfie Devine and quickly played it between two defenders in the direction of Ndiaye but when it eluded the No 10, Johnson tracked its passage and fired past Nicholls with aplomb.

Further changes saw Charly Alcaraz, Tyrique George and Adam Aznou come on for late cameos and there were chances for George and the irrepressible Harrison Armstrong to try and curl home efforts to pad the score but both missed wide to the keeper’s left.

Everton’s reward for an impressive evening’s work is a home tie against Wolves and a chance for Moyes, who took no chances by naming a strong line-up at Deepdale, to make amends for the Blues’ miserable defeat in the Black Country at the same stage of the Carabao Cup last season.

Play anywhere as well as they did tonight and Everton should have no problems booking their place in the fourth round.