Chris Beesley believes any Evertonian blaming Hill Dickinson Stadium for the team's poor home form is missing the point
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Alan Myers, a passionate lifelong Evertonian who worked for the club for many years and has gone on to follow that up with a long and distinguished career in sports broadcasting, hit the nail on the head with his message to fellow Blues on social media the morning after the night before.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), he wrote: “Just to add a bit of balance, we may be struggling at HD form-wise but the new stadium is the best thing to happen to Everton for long time. It will form a big part of the club’s recovery in the coming years, Goodison’s wooden seats are best where they are, in a box on the wall!”
On the same platform, John-Paul who uses the handle @Huytontoffee, put it rather more bluntly: “I can’t believe there’s grown men blaming a stadium for Everton being s**t and not the manager/players.”
After the victories over Brighton & Hove Albion, Crystal Palace, Fulham and Nottingham Forest in 2025, the balance at the Blues’ inaugural Premier League season at Hill Dickinson Stadium tipped with Bournemouth’s comeback win as it meant David Moyes’ men had now lost more games than they’ve won at their new home on the Mersey waterfront. But let’s be plain about this now from the offset, the disappointments are down to how the team is playing rather than their surroundings.
It’s time for Evertonians to face some harsh truths. First the absolute nonsense, and it is just that, suggesting these kinds of results would not have occurred at Goodison Park.
As recently as 2022/23, when Everton survived what would have been a first relegation in 72 years by a single Abdoulaye Doucoure goal – against Bournemouth of course – on the final day, despite posting the lowest equivalent points total in their history, they lost 10 home games. The Blues bowed out at ‘The Grand Old Lady’ with just five wins in the league last season, their joint lowest total ever, tied with 1957/58.
Goodison Park has a unique place in football history. The first purpose-built football ground in England, the first club ground to host an FA Cup final, the first to be visited by a reigning monarch, the first to have double-decker stands on all sides, the first to have a triple decker stand, the first to have a scoreboard, the first to have a dugout, the first to have undersoil heating, the only club ground to host a World Cup semi-final and the venue for the most top flight matches.
But she was clearly at the end of her natural life by the time Everton finally moved out after 30 years of actively searching for a replacement and it was no coincidence that period corresponded with the longest trophy drought in the club’s history. The Blues entered the Premier League era in 1992 as one of the supposed ‘Big Five’ but a document in their points deduction appeal in 2023/24 revealed that Goodison was now in the division’s bottom three when it came to generating matchday revenue.
Financial experts have calculated that the move to Hill Dickinson Stadium will bring Everton an additional £60million a year. Many will lament the failure of the Blues’ previous attempts to relocate to the waterfront in the early 2000s but there’s no point crying over spilt milk now and as exciting as the King’s Dock project would have been, the venue itself would been more like Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium than a truly ‘football first’ concept with steep stands close to the pitch that makes Hill Dickinson Stadium so special.
Everton’s move has been a long time coming but it’s a case of the best things come to those who wait. Nothing against the good folks of Kirkby who have given the Blues the likes of Leighton Baines and Alan Stubbs, but think of where the club might have been now if they’d been allowed to jump into bed with Tesco and become out of sight and out of mind beyond the city’s boundaries?
Taking its place among Liverpool’s world-famous skyline which includes the two cathedrals, Hill Dickinson Stadium is now a ‘fourth grace’ along the waterfront in what is the most enviable location of Premier League stadia. Nottingham Forest’s City Ground is in a picturesque spot by the Trent, but there is no comparison and while Fulham’s Craven Cottage is in a well-heeled corner of the capital, the main attractions by the Thames such as the Houses of Parliament and the Tower of London a much further along the river and nowhere to be seen.
Yet still some people moan. While it’s no fault of the stadium itself, the disappointment is real and understandable though.
FIFA journalist and Evertonian James Pendleton points out a rather telling statistic. He remarks: “This season, Everton have taken two points from a possible 18 in home games which have directly followed an away victory. It truly is the hope that kills you.”
Therein lies the rub. Moyes has cured Everton’s away day blues with a team who had won just one Premier League fixture on the road in the 12 months prior to his arrival (and that was at Ipswich Town who headed straight back down to the Championship after back-to-back promotions), and steered them to 11 away victories since returning but he hasn’t been able to fix the home form.
Trying to whip up an atmosphere been a recurring theme in his programme notes all season, but in truth the noise levels at Hill Dickinson Stadium have been immense in the moments when the home supporters have responded to what the team are enabling them to feed off. However, those occasions have been increasingly rare of late.
Many visitors commented on how difficult it is to come to Goodison when you’re not a Blue and it’s that intimidating bear pit atmosphere that Dan Meis and his team of architects were tasked with replicating when it came to designing the new stadium. Sir Alex Ferguson said: “It is always a nightmare going there and it wouldn’t matter whether it was Dixie Dean playing for us, the atmosphere is fantastic,” while Jose Mourinho claimed: “I love to play Everton, especially at Goodison Park, where the atmosphere is magnificent.” Neighbours Liverpool have a global reputation for European nights at Anfield, but Arsene Wenger insisted: “Everton’s ground is a lot more aggressive than Liverpool’s. It’s one of the noisiest I’ve been to. It has a great atmosphere,” with Paul Scholes concurring: “I never found Anfield intimidating. Goodison Park had the better atmosphere.” It’s not just opponents who have felt the heat. Howard Webb took charge of a World Cup final but admitted that for him Goodison was: “The hardest place to referee in the Premier League.”
Those same supporters that made Goodison so intimidating are now inside Hill Dickinson Stadium and in greater numbers than ever – apart from when Bournemouth are in town it would seem. The move from Walton to Vauxhall is enabling Everton to play in front of the biggest regular crowds in their history given that they’ve previously only topped the 50,000 figure once for average gates (51,603 for the 1962/63 title-winning season), so if the team can provide the entertainment then there are no excuses.
Of course there are mitigating factors that haven’t helped with the transition, including a spate of non-traditional kick-off times and the transport issues that continue to hamper spectators when it comes to trying to make a quick getaway, but Everton captain James Tarkowski himself admitted that the issue with form lies with him and his team-mates.
When asked about the failure to replicate the impressive away form at Hill Dickinson Stadium following the defeat to Bournemouth, the centre-back said: “We need to find a way of doing that as well. This stadium deserves a team that’s going to be winning here, week in, week out, so we need to put that right.”
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