ECHO Everton reporter Chris Beesley picks his top 10 matches at Goodison Park
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Picking a top 10 matches at Goodison Park is no easy task given the volume of potential candidates to choose from, but this correspondent has given it a go. In addition to my day job as Everton reporter for the ECHO, I have written a book called Spirit of the Blues: Everton’s Most Memorable Matches and Goodison Park’s Greatest Games, which features 100 of the Blues’ fixtures from their 133 years at England’s first purpose-built football ground.
There’s still one last chapter to write following the game against Southampton this Sunday, but alongside many iconic Everton encounters, the publication also features the five World Cup matches – including the only semi-final to be played at an English club ground – the two FA Cup finals and a game that attracted a world record crowd for a women’s club game that stood for over 98 years, which is apt given Tuesday’s announcement about how Goodison will be used in the future. However, let’s specify that this is an Everton top 10, so those particular fixtures will not be considered here.
Goodison is still the venue that has hosted the most English top flight matches though and while the Blues lifted their first League Championship at Anfield before Liverpool FC even existed, all their subsequent major honours have been won while at the ground. Of course, any such list is highly subjective, there can be no definitive ‘correct’ choices and people are going to feel strongly about the games you end up leaving out.
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Starting from a longlist of the 99 Everton matches already included in Spirit of the Blues, I have tried to be as discerning as possible when choosing the ultimate top 10 and have attempted to give due prominence to different eras of the club’s illustrious history. Therefore, counting down over the next five days, and finishing on May 18 when Everton’s men’s first team play for the final time at the Grand Old Lady, here is the first of our five instalments...
Number 10
May 7, 1994: Everton 3 Wimbledon 2
Everton's Graham Stuart is congratulated by team-mates and fans after netting the winner in the 3-2 victory over Wimbledon
Everton's Graham Stuart is congratulated by team-mates and fans after netting the winner in the 3-2 victory over Wimbledon
Speaking on his episode of Goodison Park: My Home on the 30th anniversary of the game, Everton’s match-winning hero that day, Graham Stuart told the ECHO: “It’s not something that I’m proud of. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a famous game in our history but for all the wrong reasons and I’ve never lost sight of that.
“Everton Football Club should never have been in that position and it wasn’t a great feeling to be thinking you could be part of a team that takes our great club down. Thankfully it all worked out in the end but it was not without its problems.
“I think we just cracked open a few beers. There was certainly no champagne flying around, it wasn’t a champagne moment.”
The Premier League era has been cruel so far for Blues, and three times the club’s top flight status has been on the line going into the final day of the season, something that the competition’s other ever-present clubs Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur have never experienced. None of those three ‘Great Escapes’ have been occasions to celebrate but unlike the subsequent sequels, a messy 1-1 draw with Coventry City in 1998 and a nervy 1-0 win over Bournemouth in 2023, the Wimbledon game was pure ‘Roy of the Rovers’ stuff.
Recovering from being 2-0 down to a Dean Holdsworth penalty on four minutes and Gary Ablett own goal on 20 minutes, Everton powered back to victory with Stuart’s two goals on 24 minutes (penalty) and 81 minutes coming either side of Barry Horne’s 67th minute blockbuster. The Evertonians who swarmed onto the pitch on the final whistle didn’t even know whether the result had been enough to save their side but this was a day which demonstrated the power of Goodison and the supporters’ ability to drag their team over the line, even at a time when the ground only had three sides as the Park End was being rebuilt.
Number 9
April 20, 1963: Everton 1 Tottenham Hotspur 0
Everton legend Alex Young, nicknamed 'The Golden Vision' by his adoring Goodison Park public
Everton legend Alex Young, nicknamed 'The Golden Vision' by his adoring Goodison Park public
If the ding-dong encounter against Wimbledon was the Blues on the brink of disaster, this single-goal victory over Spurs was the Blues on the cusp of greatness. This was the game that signalled the start of a bright new era for Everton in the Swinging Sixties – albeit under the stewardship of their strait-laced manager Harry Catterick and owner John Moores.
Two years earlier, Tottenham Hotspur had become the first club to do the League Championship and FA Cup double in the 1960/61 season and most of that great side were still around two years later when they pushed the Blues for the title, netting 111 goals in 42 matches, having added the prolific Jimmy Greaves, who would go on to net more top flight goals than Dixie Dean, to their ranks. Everton would finish the 1962/63 season unbeaten at home for the first time; it is also the only occasion to date the Blues’ average home crowd topped 50,000 (51,603) – a figure they can now better at their new 52,888 capacity stadium by the banks of the Mersey – and 67,650 crammed into Goodison Park to watch this title showdown.
Writing in the ECHO, Leslie Edwards reported: “When the goal came, after sixteen minutes (Tottenham’s best sixteen of the match), the applause literally shook the place. I’ll swear the Press Box moved inches up and down from the reverberations of the din.
“Jumping half his own height, (Alex) Young soared over one opponent, John Smith, edged the ball, almost gently, high over the line. If he never scores again, he will always be remembered for this historic goal.”
A 1-1 home draw with Arsenal followed four days later but then four successive victories saw Everton crowned champions six points clear of Tottenham, although they had to wait until their 4-1 win over Fulham in their final game to clinch the title.
Spirit of the Blues is available to order now
Spirit of the Blues is available to order now
You can click here to order your copy of Spirit of the Blues