McNeil’s superb strike gives defiant Everton vital win at Nottingham Forest | Premier League

Dwight McNeil’s first goal of the season enabled Everton to extend their impressive away record and move to within two points of the safety zone as they showed their off-field fight against the 10-point penalty is matched on the field.

The left winger scored with a superb shot with the outside of his boot midway through the second half as Everton made it 13 points from seven away matches in the Premier League, including three in a row on the road. Forest, on the other hand, lost for the second successive home match.

“We shall not be moved” sang the Everton fans in the Bridgford Stand upon the final whistle. They had protested at the start of the match against the penalty for breaching the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules, against which they appealed on Friday, holding up pink cards that included the word “corrupt”.

Forest had Divock Origi ready to come on in the 13th minute after Chris Wood went down requiring treatment for a foot injury. Forest have struggled at centre-forward without the injured Taiwo Awoniyi, not winning without him in their starting XI since February.

Origi would not have minded coming on: he loves playing against Everton, having scored six times in nine previous Premier League games against them, including a stoppage-time winner for Liverpool on this day five years ago.

Wood ran off the injury, at least initially, but Forest could not get a foothold for the opening quarter of the game.

Everton were by far the more dominant side but with Dominic Calvert-Lewin, integral to their relatively impressive form, out with a muscle injury, they lacked a cutting edge.

Beto, his replacement, half-volleyed over a gaping goal after Odysseas Vlachodimos, duelling with McNeil, failed to get a clean punch on James Tarkowski’s long ball down the middle.

Forest rallied. Anthony Elanga started getting the better of Ashley Young down the left wing and he swivelled to shoot just wide from a cross by Serge Aurier, one of four changes to the Forest side that let slip their long unbeaten home run against Brighton last time out.

Forest continued to look vulnerable, however. A Murillo clearance off the line hit a post and then rebounded out when McNeil, sent in by the impressive Abdoulaye Doucouré, shot past Vlachodimos.

Then again, Morgan Gibbs-White had a clear sight of goal from wide on the right, shooting into the side-netting, in first-half stoppage-time. It was that kind of game: the teams sprightly enough to keep trading chances, but not good enough to control the flow of the contest.

Everton’s first-half superiority, with Doucouré particularly revelling in the space he found behind the Forest midfield, was finally rewarded with a goal midway through the second.

After Felipe, introduced as a half-time substitute for his first taste of action of the season, hit the outside of a post at the other end, Everton continued to press with a barrage of crosses. Most of them were headed away as Forest defended doughtily. But then the winger Jack Harrison exchanged a one-two with Idrissa Gueye down the right and saw his deflected cross flick all the way out to McNeil coming in from the opposite flank. There was scant cover as the winger unleashed a superb shot into the far top corner.

Forest went for broke as they had to, deploying Callum Hudson-Odoi and Elanga as wing-backs, with Orel Mangala sitting in front of a back three.

But Everton love this kind of situation; they have not lost under Sean Dyche after scoring first. They were not about to change that narrative now.