Garner Hails Forest Win & Barry Reveals Goalscoring Inspiration

James Garner hailed the "clean" and "clinical" nature of Everton's performance, while Thierno Barry revealed he watched videos of Romelu Lukaku ahead of Everton's impressive 2-0 away win over Nottingham Forest.

Garner, who won the Player of the Match award for a stunning individual display, opened the scoring inside 20 minutes, latching on to Dwight McNeil's through ball and expertly dispatching into the corner of the net.

Barry then sealed the result with 11 minutes of the contest remaining, when Garner provided a defence-splitting pass for the Frenchman, who took one touch to control and another to convert with a confident left-footed finish.

The victory was made more impressive by the context of the Toffees' depleted squad, with Michael Keane and Charly Alcaraz adding to an already-lengthy injuries list, while Iliman Ndiaye and Idrissa Gana Gueye remain unavailable due to their participation at the AFCON.

Speaking afterwards, Garner said: "We knew it was going to be tough coming here. We've got a lot of injuries and a couple of lads have gone to AFCON, so we were very short, but to come away with a 2-0 victory here is very impressive.

"[I think the key was] to keep a clean sheet. We've not been the best this season at keeping the ball at the back of our net, so I think that was key. We defended very well as a team.

"We were on the back foot for a lot of the game, so the message was, as soon as we win the ball back, let's make sure we're clean and that's what we were – we were very clinical in the moments we got.

"A few lads were making their first starts of the season today, some lads were coming back from injury and things like that. That's massive now because we need ever going into the second half of the season. For everyone to get minutes is massively important for us.

"I think it was three games we hadn't scored in so to come away with two goals, away from home, as well as the clean sheet and win is massive. Now we need to take it into the home game [against Brentford] on Sunday."

Barry, who notched his first goal against Forest in a 3-0 home win over Sean Dyche's side earlier in the month, says he is now aiming to build momentum after another impressive finish.

"It felt very good [to score again]," said Barry. "Always I talk with Jimmy and I tell him to play higher and give me passes as much as he can. Today he gave me the assist and he definitely deserves the Player of the Match award today.

"This morning I watched a video of Lukaku and I said, 'Okay, today I need to do like him', and I scored, so I'm very happy! 

"I want to keep scoring now."