11/02/2025 56comments  |  Jump to last

The days go by, the matches come and go, yet one thing remains unchanged: the soul of Goodison Park.

This iconic stadium, the beating heart of your Everton Football Club, has witnessed countless moments of glory, heartbreak, and pure passion, fuelled by the voices of thousands of loyal supporters.

The last FA Cup tie, the last Merseyside derby, the last roar from the stands… The word “last” seems to be creeping into every conversation about Goodison Park these days (too much, perhaps?).

Because yes, the time is drawing near when we will have to say goodbye. But before that moment comes, before the floodlights dim for the final time, let’s take a moment to relive your greatest memories.

Maybe you were there, in the trembling stands, the night Duncan Ferguson scored and sent the whole ground into euphoria.

Maybe it was your first match, hand in hand with your father or grandfather, wide-eyed as you took in the magic of Goodison for the very first time.

Or perhaps it was that one unforgettable night, when an unexpected victory had you singing your heart out with strangers who, for ninety minutes, felt like family.

Whether you’ve cried with joy or despair, whether you’ve stood in the freezing rain or basked in the glow of a summer evening, your story at Goodison Park deserves to be told.

 

So share it with us in the comments. Goodison Park is not just a stadium—it’s a part of your life.

 

Reader Comments (56)

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer ()


Dennis Stevens
1 Posted 11/02/2025 at 12:38:49
Warm eccles cakes, mmmmmnn!
Dave Carruthers
2 Posted 11/02/2025 at 15:10:32
There are so many occasions arent there. The two European games against Monchengladbach on 1970 and Bayern of course in 1985 stand out. Just on the first and last theme, will go for my first ever game which was March 31st 1965 vs Chelsea. Suddenly almost overnight I had become fanatical. It all came from my Dad who bought me a scarf and proudly took his 7 year old for the first time. I’m sure I gave an audible gasp when I walked to my seat in the Bullens Road stand and saw the stands, the pitch and the expanse. That feeling has never ever gone away. We drew 1.1 ( a Jimmy Gabriel header) but never has Alan Ball’s famous statement “ once Everton has touched you….” been better applied than to me that day. I’m sure so many people will have similar recollections
Ged Simpson
3 Posted 11/02/2025 at 17:52:21
Aged 6. hot dog.

Ummm.

And tomorrow online.

Liam Mogan
4 Posted 11/02/2025 at 17:59:31
Was never allowed those hot dogs outside the ground.

My dad said the hot dog men pissed in the onions

Mark Boullé
5 Posted 11/02/2025 at 20:52:46
As a lifelong Southerner I haven't been too many times, and many of the best memories I have come from away games - my very first match being the 3-2 win at QPR with the late Hinchcliffe direct free kick, a raucous cup win away at West Ham with the Yak and Co on fire for the first coming of David Moyes...

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.

Paul Kernot
6 Posted 11/02/2025 at 21:05:10
Dave #2. Mine was in 1967 age 6. My dad was a chippy. He made a fold out step that he propped up against the front wall. It opened it up so I could just about see over the wall. No idea who we played or the result. All I remember is white socks running past my face and the noise when we scored. Been blue ever since of course. Even through all the shit I got from my red mates at school most Monday mornings.
Paul Kernot
7 Posted 11/02/2025 at 21:30:11
Hardly missed a home game from age 6 to 18 when I got a job as a life guard at Pontins in Hemsby. Tough choice!
Tony Abrahams
8 Posted 11/02/2025 at 21:42:53
I love Goodison Pk, Charles, and will probably post a monologue about my countless memories on this website before she closes her doors for good mate, but I have long felt that our ground was cursed, by a self centred fraud, who was also an egotistical maniac.

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

Ged Simpson
9 Posted 11/02/2025 at 21:58:47
Takes me back Liam (4).

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!

Danny O'Neill
10 Posted 11/02/2025 at 23:21:49
Too many to remember.

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.

Danny O'Neill
11 Posted 11/02/2025 at 23:44:17
**Harry Catterick 1985.
Eugene Ruane
12 Posted 11/02/2025 at 23:47:07
.
All of the following is true - 100%.

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.

Tony Killen
13 Posted 11/02/2025 at 23:54:59
There have been loads of great matches, goals, players, but in some ways my favourite memory is actually from a fairly nondescript game against Spurs back in the nineties.

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!

Laurie Hartley
14 Posted 11/02/2025 at 00:12:19
Standing on the Bullens Rd terraces directly in line with Alex Young as he rose to head the goal against Spurs that basically resulted in us being champions in 1963.

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.

Mike Gaynes
15 Posted 12/02/2025 at 02:58:16
Ell Bretland, whose brilliant historical prose has often graced TW, is writing a book of Goodison memories. I'm happy to share the story I shared with him, with apologies to those of you TW veterans who know this tale by heart already:

The first time I walked into Goodison Park, on April 8, 2017, I was a child of 61.

And I burst into tears, childlike. Several times, in fact.

I had become a Blue 32 years earlier when I caught a rare Cup tie on US television, the game featuring Kevin Sheedy's legendary double free kick. I pointed at the TV and declared, “That’s my player, and that’s my team!”

For years I had bantered with the guys on ToffeeWeb about my hope to visit Goodison someday and in 2015 I even started pulling together a plan. But then, suddenly, stage 4 cancer arrived. Surgery, treatment, complications. I had waited too long, and my someday at Goodison was gone.

Just as suddenly, in 2017, someday came back. A breakthrough treatment granted a brief remission. The TW lads fell all over each other offering game tickets, places to stay and travel guidance. So off I went. 24 hours, three flights, four trains, and there I was at Lime Street Station.

The guys couldn't have been warmer or more supportive, particularly four very special hosts -- Pete Mills, Rob Halligan, Kevin Johnson and Keith Harrison. So my emotions were perilously close to the surface when I went up the ramp with Keith and first saw the bright green grass and the blue seats and the warmup footballs flying around. And I lost my composure completely.

And right after kickoff, in my gifted row EE seat in the Park End, I did it again. Kevin Mirallas sliced through the Leicester defense and was pulled down, and Tom Davies followed up to score, right down below me. We all levitated, and while I was still in midair, I glanced at the clock and it read 32 seconds. That’s right, 32 years, then 32 seconds. No movie could make that a believable scene. I sobbed like a five-year-old.

Rom Lukaku (twice) and Phil Jagielka added goals to a glorious 4-2 victory on a day that grew even more unforgettable afterwards when Kev, a club volunteer groundsman, actually walked us onto the holy pitch. I put down on the Park End penalty spot an autographed ball Kev had given me as a gift from the club, and I drove a highly illegal pen into the same side where Sheedy had placed his second free kick in '85. Only my first kiss with my wife ranks as a greater moment in my life, and I don't have a photo of that. Kev snapped one of my inappropriate kick.

I returned to the same gift seat the following Saturday to enjoy a 3-1 win over Burnley, with Jags, Rom and Ross Barkley scoring the goals. After the match, the club arranged for us take pitchside photos with young Tom and my favorite player Leighton Baines. It was a magical finish to an extraordinary Everton experience.

The coda is that, astonishingly, I’m still here. Medical science says it was the new treatment that made me one of the very first survivors of that particular kind of cancer. But I still give great credit to the miraculous healing touch of the Park End.

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

Ian Donnarumma
16 Posted 12/02/2025 at 07:20:35
Everton v Southampton,
7th October 1967.
With my dad in the old main stand.
Jimmy Gabriel's wife and children sat immediately behind us.
Everton won 4 - 2 that day.
Alan Ball - as he was for so many - was my boyhood hero.
And Goodison Park has lived in my heart for nearly sixty years now. 💙
Les Callan
17 Posted 12/02/2025 at 08:06:54
My earliest memories of Goodison :
Sousa marches on the tannoy before the match.
The smell of pipe tobacco in the paddock.
Floodlights on those enormous pylons.
The Littlewoods clocks.
The half time “ ABC “ scores.
The wrestling ads on the boards carried around the ground.
Buying a programme outside the ground.
Those benches in the Park end stand.
Davie Hickson.
Danny O'Neill
18 Posted 12/02/2025 at 08:19:05
As I was trying to muster and work my way through too many memories to recount, I started browsing and stumbled across a lot of Everton archives and one on Dixie Dean. Not that I am anywhere near old enough to remember him, he is obviously embedded in Goodison history.

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.

Les Callan
19 Posted 12/02/2025 at 08:29:18
A very touching story Mike.
Alastair Donaldson
20 Posted 12/02/2025 at 09:45:50
9th May 1987, Luton Town Home, 3-1.. Reidy and Inchy with the League Trophy dancing round the pitch… I have sometimes fused this with a similar 1966 World Cup Alan Ball image chucking Jules Rimet to a teammate.

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!

Mark Murphy
21 Posted 12/02/2025 at 14:30:22
Kindly Paul - Hemsby though!
At least I can blame Spain for missing the best years, but Pontins???
UTFT
Les Callan
22 Posted 12/02/2025 at 14:35:41
Talk about taking the piss. Apparently, the BBC’s idea of a tribute to Goodison is to show all Rush’s goals against us. Typical.
Lenny Kingman
23 Posted 12/02/2025 at 15:44:36
The Southampton game in the snow in 71
comes to mind. So colourful a scene with the white pitch, team kits and flurescent orange ball. Was snug as a bug in the Street under the stand. Further warmed up by 8 of the best with Bally, Johno and Joe having a field day. Remember glancing down at the Park Ends newish digital scoreboard going into overdrive and finally settling on Everton 8 Southampton 0. Tons of memories but maybe for another day.
Fred Charters
24 Posted 12/02/2025 at 16:23:23
My first ever game was aged 10 (now 85), stood in the Boys Pen which was in the corner of Gladys St & Bullens Rd. Many memories but my favourite was watching my all time hero Alex Young, during the taking of a corner on the left hand side (by Johnny Morrisey I think). The Golden Vision was way out on the right & as the corner kick was taken he ran in patting his head. Leaping like a stag he met the ball and it rocketed into the net. Fabulous 💙
Alan McGuffog
25 Posted 12/02/2025 at 16:33:41
Les...I saw that too. The media cannot let any opportunity to make it " all about them " pass can they ?
Anyway late August or early September 1961, climbing up to the Boys pen, at tender age of 8, and then seeing that lush turf in the sun unfold to my wondrous eyes. And a four nil home defeat to Wednesday didn't deter me.
Fast forward to the 5th round in 1967, a Saturday evening in a gale and Bally's winner in the St End.
A rain sodden night in 1970 against Albion and a rocket from Colin.
A lot of last 55 years has been shite but you never stop believing.
Paul Kernot
26 Posted 12/02/2025 at 19:55:12
Mark #21. To an 18 year old, the girls were pretty much the same anywhere, and they changed every Saturday!!
Brendan McLaughlin
27 Posted 12/02/2025 at 20:10:38
There is a live forum... the link is just under the main site banner and highlighted blue.
Jimmy Cormack
28 Posted 12/02/2025 at 23:47:08
My first and only game at Goodison was on the 12th of September 2015.

I remember going for pint before the match and being almost overwhelmed with excitement.

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.


Tamhas Woods
29 Posted 12/02/2025 at 00:09:51
Coincidentally, my first and last visits both ended 3-2 to the mighty Everton.

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.

George Stuart
30 Posted 13/02/2025 at 01:42:25
It's 1960. I'm four years old.
Me Dad is taking me to my first proper football game.
We're in the Park End stands.
It's dark, everybody seems twice as tall as me, because they are.
Strange aromas, Bovril, meat pies. Beer, I know that smell.
There's a strange buzz. A mix of background chatter and. excitement ?
"Come on lad". We walk up steep wooden steps. I can do this on my own because I'm a big boy.
I've got my own woolen blue and white scalf too.
As we walk upwards a white trapezoidal sky vaguely lights the way. I had only ever seen Goodison Park in black and white. As my sight rises above the top step it opens up to a brilliant intensely bright green rectangle. Vertical stands rise up on each side. The background buzz continues but is more diffuse.
I'm aghast. I am forever in love.
Mere words cannot do justice to the feeling that were conjured in that little boy in that moment.
Royal blue and white Gods will tread this green heaven for the next sixty five years.
Thank you dear old lady. You shall forever be in my thoughts.
Eugene Ruane
31 Posted 13/02/2025 at 11:40:22
Imagine being 6 or 7 and last night you were taken to your first derby at Goodison.

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?"

David Foster
32 Posted 13/02/2025 at 17:40:37
Plastic cup's of hot Bovril, ripping tickets from my season ticket book, a meat pie, and Peter Beagrie doing backflips after he'd scored a goal. These are my earliest memories of the Grand Old Lady.
Darrel Pugh
33 Posted 13/02/2025 at 18:05:21
West Ham home April 1987. Driving up and seeing the main stand for the 1st time, I’d only seen it in Shoot & Match magazine!

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!

Brian Denton
34 Posted 13/02/2025 at 21:30:39
Eugene (12) I really enjoyed reading that post, though I now can't get that bloody Slade song Far Far Away out of my head. Or maybe Rutger Hauer's dying speech in Blade Runner. Either way, it was good to get a bit more flesh on the bones of one of the wittiest of our ToffeeWeb contributors - 'Moyes on Holiday' being the highlight, obviously. Weird that you're only about a year younger than me.

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!

Paul Hughes
35 Posted 13/02/2025 at 22:15:13
My dad’s work makes moved from Scotland to Liverpool in 1965 when I was 18 months old. He was a Celtic fan, but as soon as I was self-aware I was an Everton fan. He didn’t take me to matches, but one day our next door neighbour won a couple of tickets, and as he and his son were reds, he gave us the tickets - front row of the Upper Bullens v West Brom in 1972. 1-0 (Royle).
Many memories since then: A 5-0 v Palace with a Latchford hat-trick; the Varadi cup-tie against the RS; the Sheedy free-kicks v Ipswich; the Andy Gray headers v Sunderland; Bayern of course; Tony Cottee hat-trick on debut; a 6-0 drubbing of West Ham including a young Rio Ferdinand; Ferguson v United; and the relegation near misses - Wimbledon, Coventry, Palace and Bournemouth - far too many.
And far too few wins against the other lot, but all enjoyable.
I’m looking forward to creating many new memories in BMD.
Derek Thomas
36 Posted 13/02/2025 at 22:17:05
I can take things from almost every post, add many of my own, going back before Carey took his taxi ride.

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.

Liam Mogan
37 Posted 13/02/2025 at 22:25:43
Eugene 31 - I saw complete shock and awe on the face of girl about 12 in the row in front of me just after the goal went in.

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.

Si Cooper
38 Posted 13/02/2025 at 23:09:31
Welcome back Eugene (well I’ve seen a few posts from you now so I’m hoping you’re going to more active on the site for a while at least). A couple of posts apiece from yourself and John Daley each week would be enough to cheer me up no end.

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.

Colin Glassar
39 Posted 13/02/2025 at 23:30:32
1968 home to Arsenal. The noise, the stamping feet, the swearing, The Holy Trinity, the green, green grass of home, the smell of stale ciggies and beer, the Goodison roar etc… These memories are seared into my soul and will never be forgotten.
Brian Denton
40 Posted 14/02/2025 at 01:46:29
A clarification to my post above - at half time some people used to walk inside the ground from Park End to Street End (or vice-versa) so for both halves they were watching Everton kicking the same way.
Derek Thomas
41 Posted 14/02/2025 at 06:59:11
Brian @ 40; by 62-63 there was definitely a fence between the Goodison Rd Paddock and the Gwladys St...and a Copper stationed at the corner to stop people climbing round.

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.)

Brian Denton
42 Posted 14/02/2025 at 08:50:17
Derek, yes I realised that the price differential (4 bob Ground, 5 bob Paddock) was the flaw in my memory. I would only have been 7 or 8 at the time. Perhaps it was people moving just along the Goodison Road Paddock itself from one end to the other. Or perhaps I have genuinely dreamt it.
John Keating
43 Posted 14/02/2025 at 09:01:07
Sounds really weird but I honestly cannot remember my first game at Goodison!
I remember Carey’s taxi. Shocked when Bobby Collins left, but not my first game!
Weird cos I have bits of memories of games around those times, especially when someone mentions something which happened in those games
The actual game I have vivid memories of was the Fulham game in 63
Maybe it is because that bringing home our first trophy for years.
I think United might be my last game at Goodison - family commitments - but I know as soon as I walk in I’ll get the same feelings as I did all those years ago and do every game since.
We’ll all miss it terribly but times move on and so do we.
BMD is absolutely fantastic and more memories will be made there.
For us awl arses we’ll still see Collins, Labone, Young, Vernon, Ball, Kendall, Harvey, Ratcliffe, Big Nev et al coming out the BMD tunnel
Rennie Smith
44 Posted 14/02/2025 at 10:09:30
My first game was Nov 26 1977, a 6-0 win against Coventry. Just in case there was any doubt in my mind about making the right choice (my 2 older sisters were both reds), a 6-0 win goes a long way to sealing the deal.

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.

Tony Abrahams
45 Posted 14/02/2025 at 11:09:20
For anyone who was there I don’t think the Bayern Munich game will ever be surpassed, but a few weeks later after beating QPR, to hear the Everton crowd singing champions, is something that resonates so much stronger as the years go by.
Si Cooper
46 Posted 14/02/2025 at 11:35:15
John Keating (43), it sounds like your memory works the same as mine.
It’s all in there and can be recalled but it ain’t been filed in any logical order?
What is it they say these days? We are all neurodivergent, but only some are classed as neurodiverse? Means there can be a variety of ways our brains are naturally ‘wired’ but only some of those ways are considered to cause those people to be ‘differently able’.
Peter Mills
47 Posted 14/02/2025 at 12:49:29
Being a small boy at the Charity Shield match at Goodison in 1966, watching the two teams, pre-match, running around the pitch with the FA Cup and League Championship trophies.

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.

Danny O'Neill
49 Posted 14/02/2025 at 13:59:30
John @43. I know what you mean.

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.

Mark Murphy
50 Posted 14/02/2025 at 15:28:01
I could write a trilogy about my games at Goodison park but one game from the seventies still gets my blood pumping. The 3-2 win against Leeds when Mike Lyons narrowly escaped decapitation from Norman Hunters swinging boot to score an incredible diving header.
James Tarkowski must have Lyons DNA somewhere in his lineage.
UTFT
Dave Abrahams
51 Posted 14/02/2025 at 15:37:46
Danny (49), I know Davie Weir scored in that game and I’ve got it in my head that it was the last one.
Liam Mogan
52 Posted 14/02/2025 at 15:40:09
Bayern Munich obviously. Never heard or felt anything approaching since.

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.

Andrew Ellams
53 Posted 14/02/2025 at 16:26:14
I guess people remember their first games, mine was a 2-1 win vs Derby on Grand National day 1978 so unusually for a Saturday then, an 11am kick off not 3pm. Latchford scored one and if memory serves it the next home game is when he completed his 30.

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.

John Keating
54 Posted 14/02/2025 at 16:50:58
Si 46
Hi Si, truly mate whatever you said I totally agree with!
I always thought it was just me!
I remember what I did in the infants but can’t remember what I said this morning
Only thing I know and can remember is my total love and dedication to EFC regardless we’ve had to put up with tossers like BK and Moshiri - although without Moshiri we’d never had BMD, with Kenwright we’d be playing in the Northern Premier and he’d still be on the treble GT’s
I admit I’m having a few problems but regardless I will never forget the absolute joy of times past, including the other night!
I will never forget that EFC is on par with my family as my life
Jonathan Tasker
55 Posted 14/02/2025 at 18:57:06
December 2nd 1967
Goodison. My first match. I was 9
V Nottingham Forest
We win 1-0
Joe Royle
I couldn’t believe how green the grass was
And also that I had to pay attention as there was no commentary
Years later I did some research and saw that on the day I was born we lost 1-0 at the city ground to Forest
Good luck beating that anyone
Alan McGuffog
56 Posted 17/02/2025 at 12:47:20
Jonathan...remember it well. We'd struggled all game, a murky, misty day. Late goal, glancing header from Big Joe into the Street End.
And it was on the ITV the next day..the one with Gerald Sinstadt.
John Maxwell
57 Posted 26/02/2025 at 00:06:45
My first game was Arsenal at home in the last game of the season 1988 (22k were there)... so pretty much I watched the demise of Everton up until 1994 when I stopped going to games as much.

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 ?


Add Your Comments

In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site.

» Log in now

Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site.


How to get rid of these ads and support TW

© ToffeeWeb