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Saturday 22 February 2025 16:09
If you’re a football fan, Goodison Park is a magical place to visit.
It might not have an HD jumbotron, world-class hospitality suites or even a VIP cheese room – Tottenham Hotspur, in case you were wondering – but it’s one of the few grounds where you can watch the sport and feel a true connection to the past.
You sense it as soon as you step out of Stanley Park and get your first glimpse of the corrugated iron stands – and the world turns blue.
Walk down the last stretch of the East Lancs Road and cross over and you see Dixie Dean’s statue, surrounded by floral tributes to Everton supporters who have passed away, while huge murals of greats like Joe Royle and Graeme Sharp tower over the neighbouring Victorian red-brick terraces.
It’s not just a football stadium, it’s a church (there literally is one – St Luke’s – on the corner of the Gwladys Street End), a cemetery, a community hub for the people who’ve been turning up here every other Saturday for 133 years.
The Grand Old Lady holds a special place in my heart too, as it was the venue for my first-ever game of football, aged six, in 1999.
My dad – a dyed-in the wool Evertonian with fond memories of glory days in the 1970s and 1980s – would take me to the odd game as a kid and I simply had to return, for the first and only time in a work capacity, before the Toffees move to their new home on Bramley-Moore Dock this summer.
It was the place I heard my first swear words and there remains an edginess to it, as United found for the first 70 minutes of our last-ever visit.
Everton scored twice in the first half and the Reds couldn’t escape the Blue riptide, tumbling from opposition tackles and misplacing passes as the home team sensed blood and tore in for the kill.
But Goodison’s also a ground where the mood can quickly turn from febrile to flat. They’ve seen a lot in these parts and, in recent years, suffered a lot too.
When Bruno Fernandes curled home a free-kick at the second time of asking, the opprobrium towards referee Andy Madley quickly turned to discord at their own side’s shortcomings.
And the murmurings only grew louder when Manuel Ugarte steered home his volley. As United’s away support in the Bullens Road jumped for joy, there was real worry among the Merseysiders that three points had slipped away to become one, and potentially none.
The penalty award and overturn in injury-time roused the four old stands one last time, but the prevailing feeling around the ground at full-time was one of anger at the officials but also perhaps their own team for giving the game away.
For United it was more a sense of relief and maybe even pride at instigating a fightback when all seemed lost.
As a club, we’ve witnessed some fine moments at this ground – FA Cup semi-final victories, title celebrations, Garnacho’s overhead kick – but the first half on Saturday definitely was not up there.
To recover with two goals in eight minutes and then survive another potentially wretched moment in the dying moments, at least gives us another Goodison memory to cling on to, as we leave this patch of Merseyside turf for the 107th and final time.
It’s onward to newer, bigger and shinier surroundings for the Blues, but a part of their heart and soul will always remain at Goodison – a place of magic and ghosts of the past.
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Saturday 22 February 2025 16:09
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