Goodbye Goodison
My Goodison Park memories.
So, this is it. The end. Or, the beginning, depending on which way you look at it.
Everton’s men’s first team will play their final game at the Grand Old Lady on Sunday.
Southampton are Goodison Park’s final visitors in this chapter of the stadium’s long history. It will not be the end, though — Everton Women will play their home matches at Goodison from next season.
But for the men’s team, it is goodbye, and so here, I have listed a few of my own Goodison memories.
EVERTON 2-0 NEWCASTLE, 7TH MAY 2005
Two decades on, it’s hard to pinpoint what I thought as a 10-year-old on my first trip to Goodison, but I do remember the long trek up the steep steps of the main stand. We were right up in the top-left corner, adjacent to the Gwladys Street goal.
Everton won 2-0 — David Weir headed in at the Park End on the stroke of half-time, before Tim Cahill wrapped up Everton’s Champions League qualification.
EVERTON 2-1 TOTTENHAM, 9TH DECEMBER 2012
Steven Pienaar. Nikica Jelavic. Last-gasp bedlam.
I was in the lower Bullens for this one — tight, restricted views, and chaos in stoppage time as Everton came from a goal down to take all three points. A father and son on the row in front did get off before the comeback, though.
EVERTON 2-0 MANCHESTER CITY, 16TH MARCH 2013
Another last-minute Jelavic goal, this time in a backs-to-the-wall, classic Goodison performance from the Blues.
Leon Osman’s stunner put Everton ahead, before Pienaar was sent off, leaving the Toffees to play much of the match down to 10, with stand-in goalkeeper Jan Mucha delivering in goal. Yet Jelavic’s looping, deflected effort over Joe Hart in the last knockings capped a memorable victory, and one hell of a trip to the Grand Old Lady.
EVERTON 3-0 ARSENAL, 6TH APRIL 2014
What stands out most about this trip is a conversation I had on the train to Liverpool. Two Arsenal fans asked what I expected. “We’re going to batter you”, was the response (or at least as far as this narrator remembers).
Everton did just that — goals from Steven Naismith, Romelu Lukaku (playing as a hybrid striker/winger, and an own goal from former Toffee Mikel Arteta sealing a triumph that should have been a significant milestone en route to Champions League qualification. Alas, it was not to be.
EVERTON 4-1 WOLFSBURG, 18TH SEPTEMBER 2014
I had a season ticket at Goodison in 2014-15. And though ultimately Roberto Martinez’s second campaign failed to live up to his first, there were a couple of highlights.
Among them were Wolfsburg, equipped with a young Kevin De Bruyne, rocking up to Goodison and receiving a good old-fashioned thumping.
Everton were brilliant at times in that Europa League campaign, but Martinez’s stubbornness eventually got the better of him.
EVERTON 3-0 MANCHESTER UNITED, 26TH APRIL 2015
Everton managed to string together a run of five wins in six games to get themselves well clear of any danger before the end of April.
The last of those victories came at home against Manchester United; the fun started after just five minutes, when James McCarthy surged forward and tucked home. Half an hour later, John Stones headed home, and Kevin Mirallas capped things off with a superb one-v-one finish in the second half.
EVERTON 1-0 NEWCASTLE UNITED, 17TH MARCH 2022
A big leap forward now, and for various reasons, I wasn’t able to get to Goodison as much as I’d have liked in the intervening years. There were some highlights, like seeing Everton play in that lovely, one-off Umbro kit in 2017 (when we all thought Sandro Ramirez would turn out to be the bargain of the century).
Yet it wasn’t until 2022 that I returned for a match of huge proportions, but what a chaotic night it was.
The first Just Stop Oil protester at a sporting event tied himself to the Gwladys Street post, and those famous clips and memes subsequently emerged. Then, Allan was sent off for what was the most yellow card tackles of all the yellow card tackles you are likely to see. But in the ninth minute of stoppage time, Alex Iwobi popped up with one of the most important goals of the season. Incredible scenes — I was knackered by the end of it.
EVERTON 3-0 BOURNEMOUTH, 7TH OCTOBER 2023
The 2023-24 season had started poorly, but Everton finally clicked into gear around late September, and after a hiccup at home to Luton Town, the Toffees got back on track with a brilliant performance against Bournemouth.
James Garrison scored the opener; Jack Harrison marked his full league debut with a fantastic strike and then played a part in Abdoulaye Doucoure making it 3-0. A lovely, sunny day looking down from the upper Gwladys.
EVERTON 2-0 CHELSEA, 10TH DECEMBER 2023
Doucoure scored on my next trip to Goodison, and the final victory I was there for — a 2-0 win over Chelsea in December 2023.
I took my partner for the first time this day, and while she maybe didn’t catch the bug fully, she did at least come to understand what it means to be an Evertonian.
Lewis Dobbin grabbed the decisive second on a crisp winter’s day.
EVERTON 0-2 BOURNEMOUTH, 8TH FEBRUARY 2025
My two final matches at Goodison, unfortunately resulted in two defeats. Both came in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
First, a 2-1 loss to Luton in January 2024 then, just over a year later, the 2-0 loss to Bournemouth this season.
Regardless, I had to include this game on the list — my final trip to the Grand Old Lady.