Goodison Park: A Place, A Story… Your Story

Ummm.

And tomorrow online.

My dad said the hot dog men pissed in the onions

Goodison memories...OK there's some recency bias here, but I can't recall many better moments I've been physically present for than Michael Keane belting in that long range, late equaliser against Spurs two years ago.

Hopefully it’s not cursed tomorrow and it becomes another of the many famous nights, that I and many others have been fortunate enough to witness.

Many Evertonians feel that Goodison has got many ghosts, and with it possibly being the stadium’s final night match, I hope they all come out tomorrow night and we all get to see the stadium at its finest (Goodison has always been a stadium at it’s finest/scariest under the floodlights) one last time

My Dad was reluctant too and said they were kept over night in a back yard.

"Why not the garage Daddy?" I asked.

I am from west of Wirral I admit!

I'll get the morbid ones out of the way first in case anyone thinks I'm cursed. I was at the derby when Dixie Dean passed away in 1980. I was at the FA Cup match against Ipswich Town in 1985. The one where Sheedy put 2 free kicks in after having been told to retake it. No problem for our Kevin.

We saw the commotion going on in front of us as we were in the Main Stand. If I remember correctly, still only 13 years old. We didn't know at the time, but found out afterwards.

Like most, I've had too many great memories of Goodison to count on one hand.

Most will point to the famous victory over the mighty Bayern Munich, a reminder that anything is achievable in a game of football.

Thumping Arsenal 6 -1 on a wintery night at Goodison and "champagne Charlie" getting a ridiculous amount of stick.

Although unglamorous, my first visit to Goodison with my Grandfather and Dad sticks in the mind. It was only a pre-season friendly against Home Farm from Dublin, and I was only about 5 years old. But I was in awe of the stadium and, sat on a barrier in the Enclosure, spending more time looking around than watching the match.

However, for someone fortunate enough to witness us win titles and trophies, including a European one, that Palace match a couple of seasons ago takes some beating. The Palace supporters I was sat amongst, by a well documented mistake were genuinely in awe by the end and joining in!!

Electric atmosphere. Goodison at it's very best. Bottle that up and take it to Bramley Moore. I met Brian Murray in the Winslow afterwards and we were both nearly in tears of relief until he started singing along to "I guess that's why they call it the Blues". Then it was smiles and hugs.

I too have had some great away experiences that I wouldn't want to miss out, because our travelling blue army is magnificent.

The Villa Park semi finals, that both went to extra time. Clinching the title at Norwich in 1987. I don't think many of us saw much of the match after Pat's goal. Too busy singing "hand it over Liverpool". And that was the best ever 8 hour journey home to Speke I've ever had.

Goodison Park has been a massive part of our Everton lives. She always will be. Now we move on to pastures new. But we'll never be far away. I think it is less than 3 miles.

I've seen, with my own eyes, the Sydney Harbour bridge, NY's Empire State building and The Caracas Museum of Contemporary Art in Venezuela.

I have shaken hands with Prince (now King) Charles, Eric Morecambe and, in Tennessee, Johnny Cash's mam.

I've seen The Mona Lisa, Guernica and Michelangelo's David.

I've stayed at Shutters On The Beach in Santa Monica, The Waldorf Astoria in New York and The George V Paris.

I've worked/lived in London, New York, New Zealand, Dublin, Hamburg and Gothenburg.

In the 1970s, I appeared in two episodes of Z-Cars* and once appeared at the Liverpool Empire in Rudolph Nureyev's production (for the London Festival ballet) of Swan lake, (ok I was only wearing a wig and holding a candle but it still counts)

How about this - I once went drinking in Madrid with Gillian De Terville, a Bond girl (Octopussy) who'd been Robert De Niro's girlfriend (I swear!)

I have been absolutely been blessed (jammy!) with amazing travel and experiences and encountering all kinds of people all over the world.

But in April 1966, when I was just seven, my (late) dad took me to Goodison Park for the first time (a night game v Utd, 0-0) and now, aged 65, I truly believe no event has had more of an influence on my life than that night.

Goodison under lights.

It was like one of those scene in Trainspotting (or Serpico for older readers) when you see a junkie getting a syringe full of heroin blasted into them and instantly..HOOKED!

(and for me there's been no rehab).

There's been hundreds of Goodison highs and lows for me since 1966 (King's drive maybe my fave) and I imagine it'll be strange, even sad after this season, never going there again.

But to employ a Hallmark Card-style quote, sometimes attributed to Dr Seuss (nb: it wasn't him) "Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened"

Up The Toffees!

*both episodes were recently shown on TalkingPictures TV.

Just before the match starts, the stadium announcer intones: “ "……. and the Spurs substitute today is Justin Edinburgh …..”

Quick as a flash, a laconic Scouse voice behind me pipes up: “Well, in that case, he’ll never make the kick off”.

I doubt that you’d get that anywhere else!

Seeing Florian Albert of Hungary and Garrincha of Brazil grace the turf during the 1966 World Cup.

Tony Kay putting Louis Suarez in a headlock as he bore down on goal when we played Inter Milan in the 1964 European Cup.

And most of all my wonderful Father who took me to my first game against Burnley in 1962. A rabid one eyed Evertonian.

And the tears still come whenever I tell the story. I have never once gotten through it with my dignity intact.

I noted he briefly played for Sligo Rovers towards the end of his career, after Everton. The club where we discovered a certain Seamus Coleman.

With discussion about the Goodison statues, which it looks like are staying at Goodison, it made me think.

I don't know if Sligo already has any form of tribute to Seamus, or Dixie, but what a fitting tribute to two Everton greats, for different reasons at different times, if Everton could help put something in place for the Irish club.

Also remember pretending to be a scouser, badly like! at a pub on the outskirts of Liverpool, really didn’t want to be beaten up by proper Toffees mistakenly as a Luton fan.. my Brookside addiction got me through!

Walking into the ground and seeing the pitch was magical. Sitting in my seat and looking at a ground that I had watched so many times at ungodly hours in my native Australia was just surreal.

I couldn’t believe I was actually there. A place that my Dad and Pop had told me about on the other side of the world just felt like it wasn’t real in a way. A magical place.

And it truly was. We won 3-1 that day, Steven Naismith scoring a perfect hat trick for a perfect day for the lad from Wollongong Australia.

First game was 20th December 2003 against Leicester in a true relegation six pointer. It was a freezing day with torrential rain throughout. The waft of pies and cig smoke will never leave me.

Me and my dad went in over an hour before KO, the song Changes by Ozzy and Kelly Osbourne (then battling Mad World for xmas number 1) was droning through the tannoy. First out to warm up were Steve Simonsen and Li Tie.

Everton had the better of Leicester in the first half despite losing Pistone to injury early doors (shock I know!). Carsley broke through and hit the post, but a rebound off Steve Howey put it in.

Leicester came back and won a FK on the edge with the last play of the half. 82 year-old Les Ferdinand stepped up and did what he always did best at GP, smashing an absolute exocet into the top-right past our Nige. No stopping it.

Leicester came out fighting in the 2nd half and led on the hour through James Scowcroft (who? yeah exactly...). Remember it being a long cross and a diving header that should have been intercepted. 1-2.

Then Rooney came on for McFadden, and within a few minutes rifled in a cutback into the roof of that mophead Walker's net. Ten minutes from time, he played a one-two with the Radz, who turned in at the near post to complete our comeback.

Three minutes of time, Nige tips a rocket from some Leicester guy over the bar. Job done. I go home elated and addicted.

So much so that I read the report on ToffeeWeb the next day and emailed in correcting a shirt colour error for Leicester (yellow was their 2001 away colour, in 2003 it was a 'black and cyan' kit with that very smart-looking diagonal stripe. It's come back a few times since.

If you read the report, that's where the 'black and cyan' comes from. My 14-year old nerdy fingers!

Of course, 2003/04 was not the best season to start going, but I also went to the Good Friday Spurs game. The atmosphere was absolutely electric and I've never seen such a dominant 45' from Everton in the flesh. We were just magnificent and that provoked hope of a top-half finish, but we wouldn't win again until August.

I have a positive track record overall, thanks much to the strong home form we had in my only ever ST season (LG in 06/07). Apart from AJ ruining the RS, a standout memory is Neville running to our corner after his flukey Newcastle goal, oh and the hailstones as AJ netted vs Arsenal. That was magnificent.

But my last visit needs no match report. It was Everton 3, Palace 2. On 19th May 2022. Enough said. Take the AJ derby, Wolfsburg, Fiorentina (before the pens) and the 7-1 vs Sunderland and whatever else passes as 'success' for millennial blues put them together, and you're not even close.

You will be missed Goodison. UTFT.

You'd probably still be talking about it 70 years from now.

"Then what happened granddad?"

"Well after all the pushing and shoving, their big Dutch centre-half was interviewed and although he tried to look all cool and unbothered, he made an absolute twat of himself and looked like a crying-arse nark. Werthers?"

The best 1st half of football ever seen was the opinion of many. Clarke, Reid, Stevens, Watson 4-0 h/t.

What sticks out was Cottee lobbing Southall & Rats tearing back to clear off the line in time. Never seen pace like that in my life!

Anyway, my more important point is the fact that nobody has mentioned the half-time scoreboards which were on the pitch level walls on Bullens Road and Goodison Road. More specific still, the fact that in addition to the letters of the alphabet for each game (alongside which the relevant half-time score would be displayed) the last four games were designated by the playing card suits symbols.

I've also just remembered the half-time walk from Park End to Street End and vice-versa. This seems so unlikely as to make me wonder if I'm having False Memory Syndrome. Somebody reassure me!

I 'left', emigrated, in 1995 soon after Royles first Derby, came back in 2002 for my Dads funeral.
Attended the funeral and post funeral piss up at Clarke's Gardens on the Friday. Then took in the Rooney Arsenal game the day after, good planning Dad.

Like many, I never got over going up the Gwladys St steps seeing the Green and the Blue for the first time, how could an enclosed space be enclosed yet so big?

That January when it became evident that with Lampard it was going to be a relegation photo finish come May, I made arrangements to be here for the last game...Enter my newly minted Australian Mrs Degsy Mk II, who then said, if you're going, so am I, I want to see what all the fuss is about.

Her verdict was - its magnificent...and you're all mad.

We are, It was, it still is - It Always Will Be.

Her face made the night for me. Spoke to her and her dad on the way down the Top Balcony steps and she still had that smile of disbelief. Brilliant.

Danny, Mike G - I was at the game when Sheeds had to retake his free kick but I couldn’t have told you who it was against and I’d never realised Harry Catterick passed away during it. I was in my usual precarious perch in the Gwladys Street and, just going off memory which I often doubt, in my minds eye the free kick was fairly central so Sheeds put the retake into the opposite top corner from the one he put the first one in.

The Cup Winners Cup game against Bayern is the one I always recall when I want to relive the bliss of triumphant tribal passion that only a great stadium like Goodison can gift you.

Today has actually restored some of my faith in my fellow man, with a torrent of pundits seemingly getting and happily crowing about what a special place Goodison has been, and how some of the shenanigans that occurred last night that the neighbours are upset about were oddly fitting for the occasion.

Back then the Ground was 3 shillings and the Paddock 4...no doubt the fence stopped people going in the cheaper entrance then going into the more expensive Paddock.
If I had to guess, I'd say that this was Instigated by the new Chairman John Moores, who knew how to run a business.

(I didn't get where I am today by letting people pay 3 bob for a 4 bob spec.)

There was also a big gate hinged from the corner of the Church wall that met the fence at the top/back of the terrace, which would be opened, along with the exit gates in Goodison Place, to allow the Gwladys St 'early darters' out (and the kids and tight arses in.)

It was me and me dad in the upper gwladys, even though I was only 9 year's old I still have faint memories of Davey Thomas bombing down the left with his socks round his ankles. Funny that looking at the stats it says the attendance was 43,309, but it seemed like over 100,000 at the time, I'd never seen so many people!

So it'll be 47 years later when I trudge out at that last final whistle on the 18th. I know loads has been made of the place this week, and other clubs will be rolling their eyes, but there honestly is nowhere quite like it when it's jumping. Every crappy wooden seat has a thousand stories to tell and I'll be desperately sad to leave it all behind.

Then noticing Roger Hunt and Ramon Wilson leading the way, carrying something small between them, and as it came past realising it was the Jules Rimet Trophy.

The moment has never gone away.

Like any filing cabinet, as the years go by, the brain gets more and more full. I too struggle to remember all of the matches I've been to over the years.

Another couple that stick out was a 4 - 4 draw against a decent Leeds team. I took my son and marched him out of the ground in a sulk (me, not him) as we were 4 - 3 down and fast approaching the 90th. I rarely do that. Low and behold, as we left the Park End gates and entered Goodison Road, the roar went up. 4 - 4.

"Why did we leave dad"? Good question. I had no answer!!!

Another, less obvious one was during the 86-87 season when we beat Charlton 2 - 1. It wasn't a classic and the crowd nervous as the "forgotten champions" were closing in to our 9th title. But we took a wobble that day and clawed a narrow win curtesy of a penalty and Gary Stevens.

Not Goodison, but the same season, but for reasons Tony mentions, clinching the title at Norwich and chants of "champions" combined with "hand it over Liverpool".

Another one, again, not a classic, was beating them 1 - 0. Wayne Clarke scoring to stop their unbeaten run and prevent them doing an invicibles. Walking back to my Aunties in Croxteth, with a feeling of satisfaction, even though win won nothing that season. Fourth in the league, which didn't carry the same reward back then. Out of the cup at the expense of you know who and dumped out of the League Cup semi final by an emerging Arsenal team.

But a shout out to Everton 5 Man Utd 0, October 1984.

What a performance that was, hailed by Joe Mercer as "I've seen Brazil play in blue today". I was 12 at the time, we were the best side in the land and that season was like one long fever dream of brilliance. Thought it would last forever, but at least Goodison was a truly magical place for a few seasons.

Others, the 2-1 cup won over them when Varadi scored the winner. 1st time I'd seen a derby win in the flesh

The rest all from the Glory days but beating QPR and standing up in the Bullens Road stand singing 'hand it over Liverpool' was magic for 14 year old me.

So I haven't really seen to be successfully games at Goodison.

Cottee hatrick v Newcastle first game of the season 1988 was memorable, I thought we were going to win the league! haha.

I'll remember the 2-1 against the RS when Beardsley scored in 1992, the first time I saw us beat them, what a feeling that was.

2-0 v RS for Joe Royles first game, I had just broken my leg, although it didnt stop the celebration... many Evertonians celebrating in front of the away end :-)

Then 1994 against Wimbledon was probably the best really, what a game, what a goal by Barry (saved my life!) Horne. Bit sad really the best experience was a game we had to win to stay up but maybe those games are more celebrated than an end of season trophy celebration ?