James Garner paused, like a protagonist soaking up a standing ovation on stage, as the City Ground’s away end sang his name. Then he raised both his fists, gloves still on, as if he were a victorious boxer.

Everton’s 2-0 win away at Nottingham Forest was a product of his performance.

The 24-year-old midfielder ran onto Dwight McNeil’s through ball and finished on the angle to open the scoring after 19 minutes — his first goal since August. The movement and the technique made him, momentarily, look just like Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, the creative midfielder that Everton are dearly missing with a hamstring injury.

With 11 minutes of normal time to play, Garner sealed the three points for David Moyes’ side. The game had been opening up, with Forest’s cross-heavy approach giving Everton plenty of opportunities to counter-attack. They were profligate and slow when those came, perhaps a sign of fatigue from having to do so much defending.

But the deciding moment of quality came from Garner turning provider, slotting Thierno Barry through on goal. The French striker — whose start to life in Merseyside has been, to put it generously, mixed — kept his composure to curl a left-footed strike past goalkeeper John Victor.

Before the pass, though, there was an ever better moment of magic from Garner. He received a switch from Barry in complete isolation out on the left flank, with Forest again exposed on the break.

He initially turned away from goal to shield the ball from Murillo and buy Forest a moment to breathe. Then, he produced a drop of the shoulder with blue shirts rushing forward and a silky turn to nutmeg the Brazil international.

That opened the passing angle to Barry, with Garner stretching every sinew to lunge forward and pick out his striker. He laid on the floor as Barry converted, with teammates Tim Iroegbunam and Vitalii Mykolenko bundling on top of him.

No wonder the travelling Everton fans immediately broke out into a rendition of, “One Jimmy Garner”.

For the hour between those two goals, Garner was everywhere. With Everton sitting deep in a 4-4-2 block, at times he had to pick up No 9 Igor Jesus.

The endless flurry of Forest crosses — 52 across 90 minutes, with only Bournemouth (54) against West Ham United attempting more — meant plenty of set pieces, and Garner proved the difference in those situations too.

As Everton’s near-post zonal marker, he headed away multiple deliveries, most importantly on 82 and 92 minutes, with Moyes’ side securing a sixth clean sheet in 10 matches.

Not only did Garner complete 20 of his 23 passes, but he also made eight clearances and won seven of his eight ground duels. “I taught those lads well,” Forest head coach Sean Dyche joked in the press conference after, having spent two years at Everton from January 2023 to the start of this calendar year.

Morgan Gibbs-White and Elliot Anderson, two other young midfielders who have recently been part of the England senior set-up, were completely outplayed by Garner.

Development is naturally non-linear — Gibbs-White and Anderson leaving Wolverhampton Wanderers and Newcastle United and succeeding at Forest shows that. The feeling for Moyes is that Garner is coming of age.

“He’s hugely developed as an individual,” Moyes told reporters post-match. “Even when I came (back in January 2025) I still saw a bit of a boy, and I think I now see someone who’s turning into a really good leader, beginning to take a bit more responsibility and beginning to start to act like a real midfield player.

“He’s come up against a couple of really good players in Anderson and Gibbs-White. I thought he looked as good as anyone tonight.”

There were a few standout moments where he showed for the ball under pressure — Everton only had 30 per cent possession — and that included one instance on 70 minutes, when he evaded two Forest players with one touch and won a smart foul on the halfway line.

Garner’s path to becoming an established Premier League player is proof of that aforementioned non-linear progress for certain players.

The boy from the Wirral spent his formative years at Manchester United. He never concretely broke into the first team, and was sent on loan at Watford and Forest (twice), with an outstanding season in 2021-22, when he helped Forest win the Championship play-offs.

Garner was bought by Frank Lampard in September 2022 — theoretically the perfect role model for a young English central midfielder to learn from — but only appeared seven times for him, with Lampard sacked in January 2023 and Dyche coming in.

It was fitting that he put in such an exceptional display in front of the coach under whom he cemented himself in the first team.

Garner’s display was that of a technical leader. He is not one to bellow instructions like goalkeeper Jordan Pickford or centre-back James Tarkowski. Those two, into their 30s, plus Garner, are the ever-presents for Moyes in the league this season.

The former England Under-21 international is the leading Everton player in 2025-26 for passes, progressive passes, shots, crosses, tackles, and interceptions. He is quickly becoming a complete midfielder, and that is after starting the season at right-back — his former under-21s manager Lee Carsley, Moyes and Dyche have all made use of his Swiss Army Knife abilities.

Moyes stressed post-match how depleted Everton are without winger Iliman Ndiaye and midfielder Idrissa Gueye — the Senegal duo are at the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco. Illness limited Jack Grealish to a second-half substitute appearance, while Michael Keane, Carlos Alcaraz and Jarrad Branthwaite were all missing too.

For context, this was Everton’s youngest Premier League starting XI since August 2022 under Lampard, with Pickford (31) and Tarkowski (33) the only players aged over 26.

And there are glimpses of the future, particularly the partnership between Garner and Iroegbunam in central midfield.

“A lot of lads were making their first start this season,” Garner told Sky Sports after the game. “A lot of lads coming back from injury, and that’s massive now. We need everyone going into the second half of the season.”

Moyes was asked about Garner’s contract after the game. His deal is set to expire at the end of the season and Everton have the option to extend it for another year, with talks having been held over a longer-term contract. “I’m quite comfortable in the situation,” Moyes said.

That owes something to Everton sitting pretty at present. This win took them to 28 points from 19 games, their best opening half of a Premier League campaign since the 2020-21 season under Carlo Ancelotti.

Keep this up and England head coach Thomas Tuchel will have an even bigger midfield selection headache for next summer’s World Cup.