More than 1,200 matches into his managerial career, David Moyes has a lengthier past than most. As he made his return to the place where it all began, it did not come back to bite him. It is more than 24 years since Moyes left Preston for Everton. A belated first return for a competitive game – though he has often been spotted in the crowd – brought applause from the Preston faithful before and after an Everton rout.
“I loved being back,” said Moyes. It was a happy homecoming for a man who lived in Preston long after he managed them. Deepdale was being rebuilt during his time in charge, he recalled. He is a builder of a different kind at Everton and Thierno Barry’s first hat-trick in English football may have served as a reminder of Moyes’ enduring ability to make plenty from players with certain imperfections. As Liam Delap, a forward Everton targeted last summer, instead left Chelsea for Nottingham Forest this week, Moyes is getting a return from a striker he signed in 2025. “He found it really difficult last year which it is for a lot of boys coming in from overseas and it is worse for centre-forwards,” said Moyes. But now Barry’s campaign is two games old and has yielded four goals.
Meanwhile, Brennan Johnson’s cameo may also cast Everton’s summer of frustration in the transfer market in a different light. Swapping the winger for Dwight McNeil meant he arrived without a transfer fee. He cost Crystal Palace £35m, never scored in 26 games for them and, in his second outing for Everton, had both a goal and an assist. The obvious caveat is that Preston are Championship stragglers, but Everton dispatched them from the Carabao Cup. They get a third-round meeting with Wolves, who eliminated them at that stage last year.
They did so courtesy of an outstanding performance from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who belongs to the long tradition of terrific Moyes signings and who was pivotal to each of Barry’s treble. He was serenaded by the extensive Everton following. He may never be a particularly stylish player, but there are days when he can be a very effective one.
His first and third were high-class goals, with Dewsbury-Hall curling a pass over the Preston defence for the overlapping Vitalii Mykolenko to centre for Barry’s first-time finish for the opener and the third a devastating counter-attack masterminded by Dewsbury-Hall and featuring a low cross from Johnson. To call his second a low-class goal may be harsh, but Barry seemed to know little about the finish. The excellence again came from Dewsbury-Hall, whose ferocious shot was parried by Lee Nicholls and bounced in off Barry.
“I would still like more, you think of the one or two opportunities he had that he didn’t score, I am annoyed with those ones,” reflected Moyes. But Barry was getting in the right positions and also provided a fine, defence-splitting pass for Johnson to advance and slot in his first goal since Wales beat North Macedonia in November. “I was really pleased,” said Moyes. “Everyone remembers Brennan at Tottenham. He got 15 or 16 goals one season. That was more like the Brennan Johnson people recognise and hopefully his confidence gets a big lift.”
Johnson had scored Tottenham’s Europa League final winner. Everton’s own bid for silverware is confined to these shores but it dates back to 1995. Moyes’ suggestion staying in the Premier League was of rather greater importance than winning a trophy had riled some Evertonians. Yet he only made three changes, to Preston’s seven; actions may have spoken louder than words as Everton cruised to victory.
There was the rarity of a start for the lesser-spotted Tyler Dibling – just his seventh for Everton – and almost his first goal, with Lee Nicholls denying him. Yet otherwise Dibling did too little to indicate why Everton paid £35m for him or to suggest he will be seen much in the immediate future, especially with Johnson’s immediate impact.
At the other end, Callum Lang, a former Everton season ticket holder, tested Jordan Pickford’s reactions with an overhead kick. The Preston assistant manager Stuart McCall struck twice for Everton in the 1989 FA Cup final; yet only two men have scored for them in finals in the subsequent 37 years.
Yet the greatest link between the clubs was in the dugout. Moyes served Preston for 194 games as player and 234 as manager, almost taking them into the Premier League; his picture adorns the wall of Deepdale’s Greats’ Room. Moyes used to have a Friday cup of tea with Tom Finney, the greatest Preston footballer, during his time in charge, and was briefly a teammate of a young loanee called David Beckham.
He, like Moyes, was bound for bigger things. The Scot has shown a generous side to Preston since then, including loaning them Harrison Armstrong for the first half of last season, but this was a day for rather more ruthlessness. A curiosity of Preston’s Carabao Cup campaign was that they had won at Goodison Park and then exited to Everton; unable to use Deepdale, they borrowed Everton’s historic home for the first-round tie against Huddersfield. That was an incongruous sight. Moyes hopes for another. Preston have not played in the top flight since 1961, the year after Finney retired. “I hope Preston do before I go,” he said.
