Andy Burnham grew up watching an Everton legend called Kevin Sheedy conjure up goals with a left foot that appeared to be sprinkled with magic dust. So the Prime Minister would have appreciated more than most the strike by Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall that put his favourite team on the path to victory.

The Merseysiders had been second best in a first half packed with chances when Dewsbury-Hall took aim just inside the angle of Crystal Palace’s penalty area. The crispness of the connection with his left boot was pure Sheedy. 

The ball exploded past Palace keeper Dean Henderson in a blur – and David Moyes’ team didn’t look back.

Burnham was ensconced next to his wife Frankie and boyhood hero Peter Reid in the best seats in the house. He resisted the temptation to wear a replica shirt, but his royal blue suit gave the game away.

He was on his feet again when a close-range header by Thierno Barry early in the second half persuaded Palace that this wasn’t going to be their day.

‘I spoke to the Prime Minister on the phone before the game when Andy Gray came into my office,’ said Everton manager David Moyes. ‘He was with his assistant, Peter Reid!

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was on target as Everton claimed all three points against Crystal Palace

‘I think it’s the first time in five years since we’ve won on the opening day. Kiernan’s goal was very good – but we also needed our goalkeeper. After we scored the second goal we probably should have gone on to score one or two more.’

New Palace manager Pierre Sage has inherited a seasoned squad that had won the Europa Conference League just 89 days earlier. For the first 41 minutes, the game appeared to be theirs for the taking, with Adam Wharton running the show.

But missed chances – and the intervention of inspired Everton keeper Jordan Pickford – took their toll.

Jean-Philippe Mateta fired an early opening over and Daniel Munoz was denied by Pickford before the Everton keeper excelled himself to tip Eddie Nketiah’s close-range effort against the post after Wharton had illustrated why Manchester City have told the London club to name their price with a delicious lofted pass.

When Mateta then beat Pickford with a side-footed shot from Nketiah’s cross, only to see the ball rebound back off the same post, it seemed inevitable there would be a reckoning.

‘Sometimes in football, you don’t score when you deserve to score – and you pay the bill,’ lamented Sage. ‘You have to convert your chances.’

Everton had also created chances during an opening half that was so end-to-end it would have driven both Sage and Everton manager David Moyes to distraction, with Iliman Ndiaye first thumping a shot straight at Henderson when given a clear sight of goal from 12 yards and later dragging another decent opportunity wide.

Moyes had spent the build-up to the game suggesting chief executive Angus Kinnear had been mistaken to suggest that Everton’s failure to qualify for Europe last season represented failure.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham celebrates alongside Everton legend Peter Reid in the stands

His team were transformed by Dewsbury-Hall’s opening goal, which came about thanks to the tenacity of homegrown teenager Harrison Armstrong.

When Merlin Rohl’s quick free kick on the right flank in the 53rd minute caught Palace napping, the outstanding Ndiaye punished them with a cross that took Henderson out of the equation and Barry couldn’t miss from inside the six-yard box.

Ndiaye forced Henderson into another save before Tyrique George blazed a chance over as the visitors could barely raise a riposte.

Palace missed the injured Ismaila Sarr, with Sage confirming that the Senegalese forward’s absence wasn’t down to interest from Galatasaray. ‘Sarr will be training on Monday,’ said Sage. ‘He has a contract and he has won many trophies with us.’

BY SIMON MULLOCK 

Ipswich 2-1 Sunderland

Jack Clarke scored a dramatic late winner to get newly-promoted Ipswich off to the perfect start on their Premier League return against Sunderland.

Former Black Cats winger Clarke came off the bench to raise the roof off Portman Road with a 90th-minute strike to hand Gary O’Neil the dream start to life as Tractor Boys boss.

Ipswich only won one home game all season during their last Premier League campaign two years ago but have already matched that this term with a memorable victory on the opening weekend.

Perhaps inspired by their opening day opponents, who finished seventh in the top flight last year, O’Neil handed out six full debuts after spending £150 million so far this summer in an attempt to bridge the gap.

‘I thought we played pretty well,’ the Ipswich boss said. ‘I thought we deserved to win on the balance of it. New signings and players that have been here a while, all pulling together.

‘The players know that they can compete at the level. We were competitive today in all phases. I’m 100 per cent confident that they will give everything in every game and we will find a way to be competitive.

‘The most confident that I’ve been in a group that I know what I’m going to see, and I know that they’re going to give everything.’

Powerful striker Brian Brobbey was the first to threaten, but Ipswich left-back Leif Davis was on hand to snuff out the danger with an important late block after Trai Hume’s forward pass.

Jack Clarke scored a dramatic late winner to get newly-promoted Ipswich off to the perfect start

Club record signing Emersonn had the hosts’ first sight of goal soon after, using his status as a target man to good effect as his header was almost fumbled by Robin Roefs.

Ipswich’s big moment came after 24 minutes when Emersonn lifted the roof off Portman Road, scoring the game’s opening goal after fine work from Julio Enciso on his own second Town debut.

Enciso, who only joined from Strasbourg on Monday, pounced on a loose pass and burst past both Luke O’Nien and Dan Ballard after winning possession inside his own half.

From there, the Paraguay international unselfishly laid off for the onrushing Emersonn to finish into the empty net on his maiden Ipswich appearance.

Dutch goalkeeper Kjell Scherpen was forced into a strong stop to deny compatriot Brobbey’s powerful header on goal as the visitors sought an immediate response.

They got it shortly before half-time when a wonderful free-kick from Nilson Angulo found the net moments after Enciso had fired over at the other end.

From 25 yards out, Angulo curled into the top corner via the underside of the crossbar. Even the long arms of 6ft 9in keeper Scherpen, the Premier League’s tallest ever player, could not keep it out.

‘Welcome back to the Premier League, someone smashes one into the top corner from 25 yards and it’s back to square one,’ O’Neil said afterwards.

Enciso worked some magic shortly after half-time and almost scored a stunner, with his inventive hook round the corner just evading the far post with Roefs stranded.

Almost immediately at the other end, Brobbey came close to giving Sunderland the lead when pouncing on an Ipswich error, but Marcelino Nunez was well-placed to block.

The energetic Enciso was showing his class and created another chance soon after, but Daizen Maeda was unable to meet Emersonn’s headed cutback around the penalty spot.

As Ipswich began to tire, O’Neil threw on last season’s top scorer Clarke in an attempt to swing momentum back in their favour, a decision that paid its dividends.

Sasa Lukic, another of Town’s experienced summer arrivals, pounced on Omar Alderete’s loose pass and allowed Clarke to do the rest on the edge of the box.

The Tractor Boys’ super sub curled into the far corner beyond Roefs to lift the noise levels and hand Ipswich the best possible start to their latest top flight campaign.

Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris rued: ‘At the minute, we are not clinical enough to create chances and score goals. They enjoyed using those opportunities.

‘We were in control when we made those mistakes. We’ll learn from that experience. It was the problem of the afternoon and we didn’t solve it.

‘When you make mistakes, you get punished. It’s not new. We want to get better and we’ll bounce back.’

BY KALLUM BRISSET

Nottingham Forest 0-1 Leeds

So much for Nottingham Forest’s bright new dawn under Oliver Glasner. If the Austrian is to have the same transformative effect as he did at Crystal Palace, he will need to find much more than this. He will need some more players for a start.

Forest didn’t deserve to lose this dreadful opening-day affair at the City Ground, but they certainly didn’t do anywhere near enough to win it. Neither, in all honesty, did Leeds. The fairest of all outcomes would have been for both teams to shake hands, go home with a point apiece, and agree to forget the previous turgid two hours ever happened.

Maybe it was the early-season rust. Glasner described it as a ‘typical first Premier League game’. Maybe it was two rusty teams playing the same three-at-the-back system finding themselves at an impasse. 

This is only the first match, of course, but either way these two clubs who spent most of last season fighting against relegation showed little to suggest they won’t have to scrap again. We can only hope their League Cup clash here again on Tuesday is more exciting.

Another set-piece season?

It was fitting, in the end, that this contest should be decided at the death by a set-piece as Anton Stach curled a free-kick from the edge of the penalty area past a flapping, bewildered Matz Sels. All of the best chances came from dead balls, whether it be corners or long throws, with so little of anything resembling quality emerging from open play.

Anton Stach curled a free-kick from the edge of the penalty area to earn Leeds three points at Nottingham Forest

Leeds, and Stach, are becoming masters of them. Glasner told his players that whoever won the set piece battle would win the match. It was such a huge part of the Premier League last season, the early signs are that it could be again.

‘We are talking so much about set-pieces being so important nowadays,’ said Leeds boss Daniel Farke. ‘Even in my day, set pieces were important. Remember magic free-kick taker Juninho, curling the ball. If you want to be successful, if you want to win the title one day, you have to be good at set pieces. Anton is maybe not as beautiful on the eye as Juninho’s free kicks but effective!’

Forest struggle to fill Anderson void

No new signings started for Forest and it showed. There was always going to be an Elliot Anderson-shaped hole in Nottingham Forest’s midfield following his £116million move to Manchester City, the question was how Glasner would fill it.

Instead of combative new signing Xaver Schlager, Glasner went for precision and artistry of James McAtee. The midfielder struggled in his first season at Forest after his £30m move from Manchester City but there’s hope that under Glasner, he can thrive playing in the same quarter-back role as Adam Wharton did for him at Palace. 

As tackles and fouls flew around, McAtee at least tried to bring some decorum. There was a neat little backheel flick to Morgan Gibbs-White that drew a rare oooh of excitement and it was his cross into the box that found the head of Nikola Milenkovic, whose effort struck the post.

Yet it was just moments. It was not enough for Forest to dominate the midfield. It was not enough to completely fill the void left behind by Anderson. Not yet, at least. He was replaced after the hour. 

Gibbs-White kept dropping deep to link play and fizz diagonal balls into the channels instead of being in the heart of it all further up the field. Even he was over-hitting them.

Glasner became the seventh Forest manager in a row to lose his first Premier League match but insists this will be a long process. It took him a while to get the Eagles soaring. 

‘There is no button to press,’ he said. ‘It is getting confidence what we are doing. It is a process. Me and my staff can’t come in, put our hands on their shoulders and all of a sudden we play like Real Madrid in the 70s.’

All smiles for Trafford

As the final whistle blew, Leeds’ defenders took it in turn to embrace James Trafford. The Leeds keeper was grinning from ear to ear. He needed that. Like McAtee, Trafford is someone trying to settle into life away from Manchester City after his summer move and this was the ideal start.

He didn’t have the busiest afternoon, he made one strong diving save to push away Igor Jesus’s header, but was neat and tidy and commanded his area. ‘He has this natural aura of confidence and calmness around him,’ said Farke. ‘It’s just what we want. He played a decisive part.’

His fellow new signing Harry Wilson, a fine bit of business on a free transfer from Fulham, showed flashes of what he will offer in the forward line, getting on to the end of a cross to poke home what looked like the opener only for his goal to be ruled out for offside.

Is Delap the answer?

Glasner confirmed after the game that Forest are after ‘two more players, two different positions and we are trying hard to get these deals done’. One of them is expected to be a striker.

Jesus had a good pre-season but showed here that he doesn’t quite have the ruthless killer instinct of an elite striker. Chris Wood has shown that but he’s 35 in December. He made a difference when he came on but dragged a good chance wide.

Forest are interested in Liam Delap, and tried to sign him last season. He fits the same profile as Wood but is younger. Chelsea want £50m but you expect Forest could get him for nearer £40m.

BY JAMES SHARPE