Thierno Barry Shines in Everton's Comeback Win
Thierno Barry walked off the Hill Dickinson pitch to a roar that felt like a changing of the guard. On a night billed as Frank Lampard’s return to Merseyside, it was Everton’s new No 9 who owned the stage – and he did it with a performance that carried a hint of Erling Haaland about it.
Two goals. One assist. A 3-1 comeback win over Coventry City. And a striker suddenly playing like he belongs among the Premier League’s elite.
A Haaland student, a Goodison‑style hero
Barry has not hidden his inspiration. He studies Haaland. He rewinds the runs, the finishes, the cold-blooded movement in the box. On this evidence, the homework is paying off.
Last season, after his £27 million move from Villarreal, he had to wait 16 games to score. The doubts followed him around the league, and at times, by his own admission, into his head. He still finished with eight, but it felt like hard labour.
This year, he has torn up that script. Ten goals in 13 appearances across all competitions. Six in the league, level with Liverpool’s Alexander Isak and only three behind Haaland himself. Among Premier League players in all competitions, only the Manchester City forward has scored more.
The numbers tell one story. The way he dragged this game away from Coventry told another.
Coventry strike first, VAR looks away
For a while, Lampard’s side threatened to spoil David Moyes’ landmark evening. On his 592nd match in charge of Everton, equalling Harry Catterick’s club record, Moyes watched his team wobble.
Coventry started sharper. Jordan Pickford had to deny Tatsuhiro Sakamoto. Jack Rudoni dragged a good chance wide. Then came the flashpoint: James Tarkowski, grappling with Caleb Yirenkyi, clearly pulled the forward’s hair as they jumped. VAR checked it. No penalty.
The away end raged. Coventry kept playing.
Their persistence paid off seven minutes into the second half. Yann Gboho, alive to a loose ball in the box, poked the visitors ahead in the 52nd minute. The finish was scruffy, the significance huge. Everton looked flat, the crowd restless, Lampard suddenly sensing a statement result.
That hope barely lasted five minutes.
Barry flips the game in five ruthless minutes
The pressure finally told, and it came from the man who has spent the summer rebuilding his game – and his confidence.
First, Barry attacked a cross like the penalty area belonged to him. He rose, hung, and buried a header for the equaliser. One chance, one goal. Hill Dickinson erupted, and so did Barry, peeling away to unveil a celebration he had borrowed from TikTok and the NFL, a dance he had planned with Tyrique George. George, he admitted later, was too shy to join in. Barry did it alone.
He didn’t stay lonely for long on the scoresheet.
Minutes later, he was there again, this time close in, bundling the ball over the line from short range. It was not pretty. It did not need to be. Strikers in form don’t care how it looks; they care that it counts.
In the space of five minutes, Barry had dragged Everton from 0-1 down to 2-1 up, and the stadium’s mood flipped from anxious to gleeful.
A landmark night for Moyes, and a reminder for England
With Coventry rocked, Everton began to enjoy themselves. The noise grew. The tackles bit. The home side smelled blood.
On a night already loaded with symbolism for Moyes, his team found a third goal that carried its own subplot. Barry, now brimming with confidence, slipped a pass into Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in the 81st minute. The midfielder, overlooked by Thomas Tuchel for the latest England squad, took his chance and finished, a crisp strike to seal the game at 3-1.
Moyes, matching Catterick’s record, had his comeback win. Lampard, the former Everton manager, had his return soured. Coventry, bright for an hour, left with nothing.
Everton, meanwhile, climbed into fifth place and looked every inch a side riding the wave of a striker in full flow.
“I just work a lot” – and the fans feel it
Barry’s words afterwards were simple, but they matched what everyone had just seen.
"It's always a pleasure to score and for my team to win so I'm very happy," he told BBC Match of the Day. "I just work a lot during this summer so we can see the results so I'm happy and I need to continue like this to help my team win every game."
He did not hide from the darker side of a striker’s life either.
"To be fair sometimes it is difficult when you miss a lot of chances your mind is sometimes bad but I always work to do my best."
The crowd sensed that graft. They responded to it.
"It's always a pleasure to play at home. The fans here are incredible. They sing from the first minute until the end. It is a real pleasure to score here and to play here."
On this evidence, the feeling is mutual.
Chasing Haaland, dancing alone
There is no mistaking who sits at the top of Barry’s personal mountain.
"I'm very happy because I'm a fan of him," he said of Haaland. "I watch a lot of videos of him and try and do the things he does. If I can play with him until the end to get the Golden Boot I will try."
Ambitious? Certainly. But with only Haaland outscoring him among Premier League players in all competitions this season, it no longer sounds fanciful. It sounds like a challenge he has quietly set himself.
Even his celebration carried that mix of modern swagger and private graft.
"I was on TikTok yesterday and I saw an NFL guy do the celebration and I said to Tyrique [George] if we score tomorrow we do the dance like that but I think he was shy to do it so I do the dance alone."
Alone, but very much in the spotlight.
Everton have seen their share of strikers come and go, some burdened by price tags, others by expectation. Barry has both on his shoulders. Right now, he looks like he wants the weight.
If this is what a Haaland disciple can produce by November, the question for the rest of the league is a simple one: how far can he drag Everton up the table before the season is done?
