Everton fans ahead of their sides final match at Goodison Park, Liverpool. Everton host already-relegated Southampton at the Grand Old Lady in their last game before moving to the clubs new 52,888-capacity home at Bramley Moore Dock next season, having announced on Friday a long-term naming rights deal to call the new ground the Hill Dickinson Stadium. (Image: Peter Byrne/PA Wire.)
Talk about ‘The Longest Day’... Evertonians were up bright and early for ‘The Last Dance’ with ‘The Grand Old Lady.’ After 133 years at Goodison Park, the first purpose-built football ground in England and venue for the most top flight fixtures, prepared for her final Premier League fixture as Everton entertained Southampton in a high noon showdown.
The early kick-off on the Sabbath was unprecedented, but so were the scenes in the streets of L4. I left the car in my usual spec but despite arriving over three-and-a-half hours before the game was due to start, I only just got my space.
The environs of the stadium are usually still pretty empty when I park up long before the start to begin my pre-match duties for the ECHO, but as I walked up to the arena where – like thousands of others today – I watched my first match and where I have spent the bulk of my football life, it was quickly evident that I was far from the only attendee to have forgone a lie-in for an encounter that had a kick-off reminiscent of a Sunday League kickabout rather than a grand spectacle in the upper echelons.
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The pavements were filling up quickly with others, decked out in royal blue, all marching in the same direction.
Patrons were already gathering around the Abbey pub on Tetlow Street while a small boy held a blue flare.
As I crossed the street onto Goodison Road itself, thousands of Evertonians were in place for an historic occasion that my colleague Joe Thomas, along with others, had declared was now “A party rather than a wake” after last week’s announcement that Goodison would be spared the bulldozers to become the new home for Everton’s women’s side when the men’s first team relocate to the magnificent 52,888 capacity Hill Dickinson Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock next season.
You hear about stuff like this in places like Turkey and South America, but this was not the kind of typical scene you see in British football.
But then Goodison Park is no typical stadium and Everton no typical club and their unique status is shining through today.