Goodison Park will host an official men's football match once again this weekend but the home side will not be Everton
General view inside the stadium prior to the Barclays Women's Super League match between Everton and Leicester City at Goodison Park on May 16, 2026 in Liverpool, England.
Preston North End are set to make Goodison Park their home for one fixture(Image: Getty )
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Preston North End will host their Carabao Cup clash with Huddersfield Town at Goodison Park this weekend. The Championship side will use Goodison as their temporary home for one match only after reaching deals with Everton and the EFL.
The Lancashire side have spent £1.5million on a new hybrid pitch at Deepdale, their own historic home turf. But the new pitch will only be ready in time for their first home Championship game of the season against Wolves on Saturday, August 22.
Preston therefore decided to apply to the EFL for permission to play their EFL Cup first round fixture, which kicks off at 3pm on Saturday, August 8, at an alternative venue. A deal was reached with Everton to use their former home of 133 years.
A statement read: "Preston North End have agreed a deal with Everton to host the club's first round Carabao Cup tie against Huddersfield Town.
Goodison Park
It has been over a year since a men's team last played at Goodison(Image: Danny Gutmann/Liverpool Echo)
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"The Lilywhites applied to the EFL for permission to play at the alternative venue due to the installation of the new hybrid pitch at Deepdale.
"The pitch will be complete in time for the club's first home league game against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday 22nd August, but to ensure no issues after a significant £1.5m-plus investment, the decision was made to ask permission to play away from PR1 in round one."
Goodison Park has not hosted a competitive men's football match for 15 months, since Everton beat Southampton 2-0 in an emotional farewell. The ground was Everton's home until the start of the 2025/26 season, when they moved to their new Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Since then, the Toffees' women's team has taken up sole residency. Meanwhile, Hill Dickinson Stadium, which cost £800million and took three and a half years to build, sits in a picturesque location at Bramley-Moore Dock and can hold 13,000 more fans.
Toffees manager David Moyes was asked about the new ground in March and said on the Men in Blazers YouTube channel: "We've moved house… and when most people move house, it takes time to settle in.
An aerial view of Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium
Hill Dickinson Stadium is Everton's new home(Image: Max Tomlinson/Focus Images Limited/SmartFrame)
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"You need to get the rooms the way you want them and we're a bit the same. We all love Goodison. And maybe I'm saying the wrong thing here, but in some ways I wish we could have rebuilt it and made it better.
"[But] we've got a fantastic new stadium now and it will be our home for hundreds of years. Everybody who comes gives it a 'wow'. It's much bigger, even the crowd — people are finding where they sit, where everything is. But the first year has been tough."