Steve Parish was hoping Hill Dickinson Stadium wouldn't live up to the glories of Everton's old home but the Crystal Palace chief was left disappointed
Steve Parish speaks on the Men in Blazers podcast
Steve Parish speaks on the Men in Blazers podcast
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Crystal Palace's bandwagon rolled on in the week when they beat Liverpool for the third time this season. But it's fair to suggest the Eagles are in no rush to return to Merseyside to face Everton.
The FA Cup holders certainly have Liverpool's number. Having beaten the Premier League champions on penalties in the Community Shield, they then inflicted a first defeat of the season on Arne Slot's side in September.
That 2-1 success at Selhurst Park was the trigger for the Reds' drastic downturn in form, which continued on Wednesday night when they fell 3-0 to Palace at Anfield in the Carabao Cup.
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That win ended the Eagles' run of four games without one after their 2-1 defeat to bogey-side Everton on their first visit to the Hill Dickinson Stadium before the international break.
Jack Grealish scored a 93rd-minute winner as the Blues came from behind to snatch victory in the most dramatic of circumstances and end their opponents' club-record 19-match unbeaten run.
Even the most biased of Evertonians would have admitted that the final result was harsh on Palace, who could have put the contest to bed long before Iliman Ndiaye's 76th-minute set the stage for a thrilling fightback capped by Grealish's first goal for the club.
But for the travelling supporters there would have been a certain inevitability about it all.
While the Eagles have bloodied the noses of the Premier League's leading lights under Oliver Glasner, they have now failed to beat the Blues in any of the last 10 meetings between the clubs.
In fact, they have tasted only two victories from their last 25 games against Everton, both of which came in the 2021-22 season, while you have to go back to September 2014 for their last success on the blue half of Merseyside.
Palace co-owner chairman Steve Parish was at Hill Dickinson Stadium to watch his side's latest heartbreak and he admitted to being blown away by the new ground.
“And as a football fan that’s trying to compete and win against you, I’m hugely disappointed to say that the new stadium is almost as good (as Goodison),” he said on the Running the Game Men in Blazers podcast, hosted by Evertonian Roger Bennett.
“I was really hoping that it would be, you know, big and soulless, and you would have somehow lost something.
“But unfortunately, when you equalised from the penalty spot against us the other day, it was really unbelievable.”
Parish is not the only chairman to have been left impressed by the Blues' new home.
Speaking recently, Birmingham City chairman Tom Wagner, whose club are hoping to move to a new stadium, said: “I will tell you, I toured Everton’s new stadium, and I stood on the last row at the end of their steepest stand. We will have two that are steeper.
“The view from that spot is exceptional, it’s so steep, I’m not exaggerating when you look at the goal in front of you it’s just there.
“When you’re at the front of the top tier and sat or standing, it feels like you’re in the front row when there’s 30 or 40 rows in front of you.”