As you first arrive through the narrow, brick-terraced streets off County Road, Goodison Park looms above.
A majestic yet anachronistic throwback to the great grounds of the pre-Premier League age, it is football nostalgia, a Grand Old Lady whose very structure still shakes when the crowd gives it reason to.
This is a venue rooted in its community, the pubs, cafes and chippies that form an indelible piece of the experience – a bevvie in the Winslow, a bacon butty in the Goodison Cafe, salt ‘n’ pepper chicken from the Blue Dragon.
But it’s about to be no more.
Beckenbauer, Pele and Eusebio all played at Goodison Park
The ground that has hosted an FA Cup final, that saw such luminaries as Franz Beckenbauer, Pele and Eusebio grace its turf at the 1966 World Cup, and whose brickwork continues to resonate with the countless memories of the club that made it its home, hosts its final game – Everton vs Southampton on the penultimate weekend of the Premier League season.
Gone forever will be a ground that Sir Alex Ferguson described “a nightmare” to visit with Manchester United, and the aforementioned Eusebio regarded as the “best stadium in my playing life”.
His World Cup display for Portugal against North Korea at Goodison in 1966 is ranked at no.91 in FourFourTwo’s list of the greatest individual performances of all time.
“The case for a move is overwhelming, but it’ll be a sad day when Goodison Park is gone,” says Paul Wilkinson, who played for the Toffees during the mid- 1980s.
“The closeness of the supporters to the pitch, the noise of the place, the fact that something as simple as a full-blooded tackle can rock Goodison to its foundations.
“So often it has been the team’s 12th man over the years. It’s really hard to imagine the landscape of Everton and English football without it.”
Modern football’s financial reality is to blame for Goodison Park’s impending demise. For all of its emotional appeal, the stadium has acted as a handbrake on the Blues’ ambitions.
Boxed in and hard to develop, it’s been a contributory factor in their generational mediocrity.
As Anfield and Old Trafford expanded to capitalise on the Premier League boom, Goodison remained fixed in the Football League epoch, with the myriad financial implications that implies.
Former owner Peter Johnson initially identified the need to relocate back in the late ’90s.
Nearly three decades and several false starts later, that need is about to be realised, as Everton move into their swanky waterfront stadium this summer.
It’s a move that brings to an end a footballing story that began almost 133 years ago.
As Evertonians are quick to point out, it’s their club, not Liverpool, that builds stadiums in the city.
The first was their original home, Anfield, developed by the club in the 1880s. Everton were the first English champions based at the ground, in 1890-91.
Were it not for local brewer John Houlding, then Everton’s president, they would likely still be there.
A man fond of the bottom line and seeing a way to marry his twin loves of football and making money, Houlding acquired the Anfield land from previous owners, the Orrell brothers, and doubled the rent.
In response, a venomous anti-Houlding faction formed, led by board member George Mahon. Civil war broke out.
Mahon suggested moving to Mere Green Field, a patch of land on the other side of Stanley Park, off Goodison Road.
“When the idea of relocation was put to the members, it was overwhelmingly endorsed,” says Tony Onslow of the Everton Heritage Society.
As for Houlding, he went on to found Liverpool.
Everton converted the Mere Green land and employed Kelly Brothers of Walton to construct two uncovered stands, each accommodating 4,000 people, as well as a covered stand seating 3,000.
Goodison Park, as the stadium was christened, became England’s first major purpose-built football ground.
“Behold Goodison Park!” declared the publication Out of Doors following an early visit.
“No single picture could take in the entire scene the ground presents, it is so magnificently large, for it rivals the greater American baseball pitches. It appears to be one of the finest and most complete grounds in the kingdom.”
The inaugural match, a friendly, took place against Bolton on September 1, 1892. In a 4-2 win for the hosts, Everton forward Fred Geary was the first man to net at the club’s new home.
A few days later, the Merseysiders commenced their league campaign with a 2-2 draw against Nottingham Forest.
Over the ensuing century, Goodison Park did not stand still.
The ground was enclosed with a fourth stand, and other sections were floored and redeveloped, its status as one of the nation’s leading football stadiums maintained.
It was the first Football League ground to hold an FA Cup final, when Notts County beat Bolton 4-1 in 1894.
In 1949, the Republic of Ireland toppled England 2-0 there – the first non-Home Nations victory over the Three Lions in their own backyard.
In 1973, Goodison even staged Northern Ireland’s two Home Championship ties against Wales and England, which had to be transferred during the Troubles.
Better still were Goodison’s five games at the 1966 World Cup, most notably the semi-final between West Germany and the Soviet Union.
Holders Brazil – Pele, Garrincha and Jairzinho among their number – played all three group games on Merseyside against Bulgaria, Hungary and Portugal.
“I saw Pele smash home a free-kick at the Gwladys Street End – life doesn’t get much better than that,” reminisces lifelong Evertonian Paul McParlan, of the Bulgaria match.
“A samba beat echoed around the ground. Pele was conducting the band, with the crowd chanting his name in a strange linguistic cocktail of Scouse and Portuguese.”
The tournament didn’t end well for O Rei, though. Kicked out of that brutal opening win, he missed the 3-1 defeat to Hungary and could only limp through the Portugal loss by the same scoreline.
Eventual Golden Boot winner Eusebio bagged a brace that day, knocking Brazil out, then four more to inspire a stunning comeback from 3-0 down to beat North Korea 5-3 at Goodison in the last eight.
Playing on a postage stamp
As prestigious as those fixtures were, it’s Evertonians’ recollections of their own team’s matches at the venerable old stadium that stir the most blood.
“It’s not just the moments you’ve lived through, it’s those passed down families from older Evertonians as part of our folklore,” says Brendan Flynn, a Goodison regular since the early 1950s.
“You might be too young to have seen the largest-ever crowd, nearly 80,000 against Liverpool after the war. Or too young to have seen Dixie Dean scoring his magical 60th goal in 1928.
But when you hear the tales told, like the one of Dean’s goal causing a commotion so loud that it sent pigeons by the Pier Head scattering into the sky, you know deep in your bones what it would have felt like to have been there.”
Goodison has hosted more top-flight games than any other in England – it’s seen eight title triumphs, plus the relief of survival on multiple occasions.
“Each decade, lean or plentiful, has witnessed scenes that have seared themselves into a fan’s consciousness,” says Flynn.
“I have a soft spot for the side that won the league under Harry Catterick in 1969-70, the one powered by the Holy Trinity of Colin Harvey, Howard Kendall and Alan Ball.
“I still vividly remember the evening we clinched the title against West Brom, looking around our amazing ground, drinking in the non-stop roar of chants like, ‘We are the champions’ and ‘We’re on the way to Europe’.
“Goodison felt impregnable, Everton unstoppable. That was one of my happiest nights in 70 years following the club.”
The noise reverberated off the wooden seats and the steel girders – you could never recreate it, no matter where you went afterwards in your career
Richard Dunne
Singling out the stadium’s greatest ever moment is subjective, but the more Toffees you talk to, the more two words come up than others: Bayern Munich.
“The second leg of the Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final in 1985 is acknowledged by a lot of Blues as Goodison’s standout game,” explains Graham Ennis, creator of the now-departed fanzine When Skies Are Grey.
“I’ve experienced lots of epic times at the ground, but nothing quite as good as the atmosphere that night.”
Everton were in the midst of their mid-1980s pomp. Under Kendall’s guiding hand, the Toffees would lift two league titles, the FA Cup and, ultimately, the Cup Winners’ Cup.
But to earn the right to claim that latter trophy, they would have to overpower the mighty Bayern.
“We’d drawn 0-0 away and welcomed Bayern to Goodison with the legitimate belief that we could beat them,” recalls Ennis.
“In 1985, Everton were incredible, well on the way to winning the title and playing the best football I’ve ever seen.”
Nearly 50,000 Evertonians squeezed into Goodison on a balmy April evening.
“As players, we’d never heard anything like it,” recounts the Blues’ left-footed maestro Kevin Sheedy.
“You knew that it would be special, you could feel that on the way to the ground, but the noise was something else.
“Once we walked out of the tunnel, the roar hit us like a wave. That meant a lot to the players.
“We were playing European royalty in Bayern Munich, so we needed Goodison to be at its very best. It was like having an extra player on the pitch that night.”
Though the better side, Everton trailed 1-0 at the interval to a Dieter Hoeness strike.
Kendall urged his players not to worry, because the fans at the Gwladys Street End would “suck the ball into the net” after the break.
“When Graeme Sharp made it 1-1 not long after half-time, the atmosphere just exploded,” remembers Ennis.
“You could see the Bayern players slowly wilt. You knew Everton would get a second, which we did from Andy Gray, and a late third [via Trevor Steven].
“By the final whistle, Goodison was shaking.”
No one relished a trip, however short, to Everton. “They were horrible games,” admits former Liverpool defender Mark Lawrenson of that period’s Merseyside derbies.
Beginning in 1981-82, the title didn’t leave the city for seven seasons.
“There was one game where the tackles were flying in like mad, and the referee stopped the game and grabbed the ball.
“He asked, ‘Any chance of us using this or shall I leave it at the sidelines?’
“The first time you stepped out onto the Goodison pitch, you thought, ‘Oh my God, this is so tight’ – it was like you were falling off a raft.
“You felt as if you were playing on a postage stamp – you’d get the ball down, look to play a pass and someone would smash you. The team they had in the late ’80s was a top side.”
The Great Escape x4
It proved the high-water mark for club and stadium.
Everton began the Premier League era among the so-called ‘Big Four’, with Goodison still one of England’s elite grounds. Each status faded.
“Over the past 30 years, Everton have fallen off the pace,” says Elliott Bretland, author of upcoming book Goodison Park: The People’s Stories.
“Goodison feels like it’s become frozen in time. My first game was on the opening day of the 1996-97 season, and the stadium is exactly the same today as it was then.
“When you consider how many other stadiums have changed over that time, some Blues point to that as illustrative of the club’s stagnation.”
Though the stadium has played host to instances of celebration over the past three decades – derby victories against Liverpool, the glorious FA Cup run under Joe Royle in 1995, the nights of European adventure with David Moyes – the more evocative episodes centre on the table’s nether regions.
“The times of high emotion that come to mind are our great escapes,” reflects Bretland.
“Fighting back from the brink against Wimbledon in 1994, recovering from two down to win 3-2.
“The games against Coventry in 1998, Crystal Palace in 2022 and Bournemouth in 2023.
“The atmosphere was unbelievable, but when you think about our storied history, it’s depressing that over the last 30 years, the defining moments have been more about relief than glory.”
Nevertheless, Goodison has continued to play its part when called upon.
It can be the greatest place in the world and the worst place in the world, often within the space of a few minutes. But it’s our home.
Many an Everton player has felt emboldened by the immense backing they’ve received during home matches.
“To play in that stadium, packed with Evertonians, it was sensational,” smiles Richard Dunne, who started his career at the club.
“The noise reverberated off the wooden seats and the steel girders.
“My first Merseyside derby there was absolute madness, like nothing I’d ever experienced before. The noise levels were insane. The feeling you got in that atmosphere, you could never recreate it, no matter where you went afterwards in your career.
“You had to try to control your emotions, which is hard with 40,000 people motivating you.
“When that crowd is in the mood, the whole game can shift in a heartbeat. If you attacked in waves, whipping balls into the box, the fans would go nuts.
“The momentum, the synergy between crowd and players, was palpable.”
The Grand Old Lady might be tired, but even in this campaign, she’s retained her ability to rise to the occasion.
“You need only look at the final derby against Liverpool to realise that,” insists Bretland.
“Those final seconds, Goodison a cauldron of noise, thirty-odd thousand Evertonians still spurring the team on.
“When James Tarkowski’s volley nearly broke the net, the old place really shook. I felt that goal to my very core, and not just because it was against our arch-rivals, or because there were 98 minutes on the clock.
“It was because, to me, that goal was Goodison – always, right up until the very end, it’s sustained its capacity to conjure up something magical.”
Recent examples of high emotion have taken place against the backdrop of the upcoming departure.
Planning permission at Bramley-Moore Dock was granted back in February 2021, with the ground broken in August of that same year.
Since then, bit by bit, Evertonians have seen their shiny 53,000-capacity home emerge out of the derelict site.
The stadium now completed, many Blues supporters have already watched fixtures there as part of numerous test events organised by the club.
The sight of an Everton side, albeit a youth team, running out to Z-Cars at an arena other than Goodison has made more concrete the reality that the end really is nigh.
“Honestly, I think I’ll be an absolute mess when the final whistle blows at the Southampton game,” says Les Roberts, of The Blue Room podcast.
“Goodison is home. It’s what every Evertonian I know feels. It can be the greatest place in the world and the worst place in the world, often within the space of a few minutes. But it’s our home.
“There are so many shared memories there, so many mates I may never see again as we move to different areas of the new place.
“I’m imagining a stunned silence at the end of the very last game, regardless of result and performance.
“How many times will we look back over our shoulders on the way out?
“The only thing you can guarantee is that it’s going to be emotional.”
