Talking Point: ECHO Everton reporter Chris Beesley reflects on the first last-minute winner at Hill Dickinson Stadium
ECHO Everton reporter Chris Beesley has covered Everton and Liverpool both in the Premier League and abroad since 2005. He cut his teeth in professional sports journalism at the Ellesmere Port Pioneer and then the Welsh edition of the Daily Post, where he also covered Manchester United. Prior to that he worked on the student newspaper Pluto at the University of Central Lancashire, a role in which he first encountered David Moyes. Chris is well-known for his sartorial elegance and the aforementioned Scottish manager once enquired of him at a press conference: "Is that your dad's suit you've got on?" while the tradition continued in 2023 with new Blues boss Sean Dyche complimenting him on his smart appearance.
Jack Grealish needed that. Evertonians needed that. Hill Dickinson Stadium needed that.
There were a trio of official ‘test events’ before the Blues’ new 52,769 capacity home received its safety certificate. However, those foundations that were piled into the filled-in Bramley-Moore Dock and stunning barrel roof that covers this already iconic venue on the banks of the Mersey were given their sternest examination yet as the ground shook to its core following the stoppage time winner that brought Crystal Palace’s six-month unbeaten run to a grinding halt.
Oliver Glasner’s side have been living their best lives in 2025, carving out an existence that loyal but long-suffering Blues supporters can only dream of. While Everton are enduring the longest silverware drought in their history, the Eagles lifted the FA Cup at Wembley after defeating Manchester City for what was their first ever major trophy (we’re not counting their 4-1 victory in the 1991 Zenith Data Systems Cup final when Howard Kendall’s side capitulated in extra time and Neville Southall, who would go on to become the club’s most-decorated player, refused to go up the steps to collect his runners-up medal).
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Even though Liverpool bagged a brace of domestic cups in 2022 without scoring a goal in four hours of football against Chelsea thanks to a double of shoot-out successes, Palace then overcame the reigning Premier League champions on penalties to add the Community Shield to their now bulging Selhurst Park cabinet. Then for good measure – a week after the Reds triumphed in the Merseyside Derby at Anfield – the south London outfit inflicted a first defeat this term upon them which has now seen Arne Slot’s side spiral into a three-game losing streak.
Although no longer ‘across Stanley Park,’ Liverpool’s neighbours have proven to be something of a bogey side for the Eagles though. Ever since Palace thumped Everton 4-0 in the FA Cup quarter-finals on March 20, 2022, when visiting manager Frank Lampard accused members of lacking b******s, the Blues have gone 10 matches unbeaten in all competitions against them.
One of those was the 1-1 draw on the day that Glasner replaced Roy Hodgson, February 19, 2024 and although he watched on from the Goodison Park Main Stand alongside chairman Steve Parish, caretaker boss Paddy McCarthy took charge of the team. Curiously, and perhaps tellingly though, the sequence also includes all three of the Blues’ comeback wins on home turf.
Grealish’s 93rd minute strike was Everton’s latest winning goal since Alex Iwobi secured three points for Lampard’s 10-men battlers (after Allan’s sending off) against Newcastle United in the 99th minute on March 17, the game before the aforementioned ‘testicles-light’ trip to Croydon with the extended period of additional also due to a Just Stop Oil protester tying himself to Asmir Begovic’s goal post, producing one of the most memorable images of Goodison’s latter years as a member of the groundstaff frantically attempted to prise him free with some wire cutters.
Since then, there has been the even more momentous night a couple of months later when Everton recovered from two-nil down to beat Palace 3-2 and avoid a first relegation in 71 years in their final home game of the campaign and then a brace of victories last season that included the 2-1 comeback success on September 28 when Sean Dyche’s side picked up their maiden three points thanks to Dwight McNeil’s double strike in another contest in which they were on the back foot for prolonged periods.
Everyone was wondering when this type of occasion would arise at Hill Dickinson Stadium though and it was the kind of spontaneous moment that you could not choreograph or pre-empt. It came in an early slot on a Sunday afternoon rather than the first Premier League game under the lights some six days earlier and as well as Palace had been playing, it was not against one of the division’s established powerhouses or a traditional rival.
But those who know Everton and know their supporters, realise that a moment of fury can spark the team and their fanbase into life. As referenced in this correspondent’s match verdict from Sunday, we famously saw that when the Blues’ Phil Neville launched a bone-crunching challenge on his former Manchester United team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo by the Bullens Road but there is also another notable example from Moyes’ first spell in charge.
That came on February 11, 2006, with what in normal circumstances would have been a run-of-the-mill fixture between a couple of mid-table sides but ended up being described by one press box sage as “the maddest game” he’d ever seen at Goodison. As David Prentice wrote in the ECHO at the time: “The record books will carry the bare statistic: Everton 1 Blackburn 0. But the real story is so much more colourful, so unpredictable, so wildly improbable.
“And it was fired by a sense of injustice which came from the officials. Three disallowed goals, one inexplicably; a contender for miss of the season; a red card from a home debutant goalkeeper (Iain Turner) and two yellow cards in front of a disbelieving crowd.
“What an opening 16 minutes! An incendiary atmosphere never wavered for a minute after that as home fans reacted with incredulity to what they were witnessing.”
Now Hill Dickinson Stadium has its first such highlight. And stoppage-time winner to boot.