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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Adam Jones

What Amadou Onana did to Everton fans as Kevin Thelwell changing room visit spotted

New tune

In the days leading up to Everton's clash with Nottingham Forest, you might have been aware of a potential new chant doing the rounds on social media.

Nathan Patterson has caught the eye of many at the beginning of the campaign with his strong performances on his first run of games in the Premier League. The Scotland international might have had to wait for his chance but, with Seamus Coleman out of the side, he's grabbed it with both hands.

And it seems a section of Evertonians want to reward that hard work with a new chant - and seemingly the club picked up on it. too. Before the match on Saturday afternoon, the speakers inside Goodison Park played "Following The Sun" by Super-Hi and Neeka.

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The lyrics for the Blues version go: "If you’re looking for a right -ack, I found a Glaswegian, Nathan Patterson. Somewhere running up the right wing, you can hear the blues sing, Nathan Patterson."

Perhaps listen out for it at an away end in the near future...

Decision confusion

Everton started Saturday's game well and it didn't take long for their forward players to cause the Forest back line a fair few problems. In particular, captain Joe Worrall was caught out by both Anthony Gordon and Demarai Gray in the opening stages of the clash.

Inside the first two minutes, Gordon flicked the ball beyond the visiting centre-back and looked to burst toward the penalty area before being cynically pulled down by his opponent. At the time, it felt like a decision that would have been easily punished by a yellow card if it was later on in the match - although it should have received a booking regardless of when the foul was made.

And that was later proven right as the same player was caught in an extremely similar position with Gray. The Everton man pushed the ball beyond the defender and was brought to the ground when it looked like he was sprinting towards the penalty area, in almost the exact same place on the pitch.

This time, the referee did produce a yellow card from his pocket, with little complaint from the Forest man. However, there will no doubt have been little murmurs of confusion among the Everton fans as to why the foul on Gray warranted a booking, but not a very similar challenge on Gordon.

Fired up Onana

Amadou Onana certainly had an eventful game on Saturday. He was introduced just before the hour mark and found himself in the referee's book a few minutes later after attempting to rugby tackle an opposing player to the floor. Another foul shortly afterward had Forest shouting for him to be sent off but the referee was having none of it.

Onan later showed off some of his more promising talents. He completed some ranging dribbles up the pitch, got in and around the final third a few times and had a rather speculative long-range attempt that sailed over the bar.

Many picked up on a training video shared earlier in the week that showed how loud the new signing already is at Finch Farm and perhaps he showed off those leadership talents against Forest, too, when the score was still 0-0.

Everton won a corner as they started to apply a little bit more pressure and Onana stood right in front of the Gwladys Street, waving his arms upwards, gesturing to the supporters to raise their noise levels even higher. He was certainly fired up, and so were the fans in the closing stages of the match.

Changing room visit

Down the tunnel at the end of the match the mood was an interesting one. Of course the Blues were disappointed to not convert as many of their chances as they'd have liked, but they continued to show some positive signs on the pitch, which will surely only be improved by later transfers.

Kevin Thelwell, shortly after the final whistle had sounded, made his way into the changing room where he stayed for around 20 minutes. It's not uncommon for a director of football to do that, of course, as he looks to gauge the mood of the players and the manager in the immediate aftermath of a game.

Andre Gomes was also in the tunnel area shortly following the match having watched the 90 minutes from the stands. Ben Godfrey had also took in proceedings from the directors box, arriving on crutches around 10 minutes before kick-off.

Squad unity is a key aspect of what Frank Lampard and Thelwell are trying to build. These moments of support might seem small from the outside, but could well be important in the near future.

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