This week's Valentine's Day edition of the Royal Blue column, Chris Beesley discusses switching affections from Goodison Park to Hill Dickinson Stadium
liverpoolecho
Happy Valentine’s Day Evertonians. If you’re reading this then it’s likely that the Blues are one of the biggest loves of your life, regardless of your feelings towards a spouse or significant other.
It was the late, great Howard Kendall who in his 2013 autobiography titled Love Affairs & Marriage: My Life in Football recalled quitting Maine Road in November 1990 to return to Goodison Park for the second of his three spells as manager and declared: “When you talk about Manchester City you talk about a love affair, but when you talk about Everton you are talking about a marriage.”
For 133 years now, Everton supporters have only had eyes for one woman, ‘The Grand Old Lady.’ For most of her long life, she was the fairest in the land, but even with a few touch-ups towards the end, there was only so much you could do to paper over the cracks with this faded beauty.
Her numerous pillars gave many spectators – including those in the Press Box – restricted views of the action, and with approximately just 1,300 of her 39,572 capacity catering for ‘corporate hospitality’, it was revealed in a document in the Blues’ appeal against their first points deduction that Goodison was now in the bottom three of the Premier League for generating matchday revenue.
Everton’s serious attempts to build a new stadium went on for 30 years from the mid-1990s. It can be no mere coincidence that the longest trophy drought in the history of a club who have won major silverware across nine separate decades – a level of consistency only Liverpool and Manchester United can top – corresponded with Goodison’s demise as being financially viable.
While he’d kept the Blues’ heads above water in times of crisis with the unprecedented brace of points deductions, Sean Dyche, the manager who had struggled to charm Goodison, save for that remarkable week in late April 2024 when he swapped his shirt and tie for a tracksuit and recorded a hat-trick of wins to secure Premier League survival, proved to be an uncomfortable partner ‘The Last Dance’ with ‘The Grand Old Lady.’
Never the most eye-catching with his moves, the first half of Everton’s historic final season in L4 was dogged by a series of clumsy missteps from the former Burnley boss, who this week was sacked again at Nottingham Forest, where the revolving door policy in the dugout makes working under Farhad Moshiri feel like a relative job for life.
Picking up just 17 points by the halfway point of the campaign, which was less than 50% of the tally the Blues posted in 2022/23, new owners The Friedkin Group made a change. Everton turned to an old flame to revive the fortunes in David Moyes, who had been the Premier League’s youngest manager when first appointed in 2002 but was now the division’s elder statesman.
A couple of days ago (on Thursday) was the anniversary of the final Merseyside derby at Goodison Park. Readers don’t need this correspondent to tell them that with the final kick of the game from a home player, captain James Tarkowski’s thunderous last-gasp volleyed equaliser, ensured that after 120 matches over more than 130 years, Liverpool didn’t finish with a winning record at the ground.
That fixture had been delayed by a couple of months after being postponed from December when 60mph winds from Storm Darragh were battering Merseyside. Dyche had delivered the Blues’ first Goodison derby win in 13-and-a-half years the previous season, but would we have seen a grandstand finish like that if he’d have still been in charge?
Tuesday (February 17) marks the first anniversary of the first game of any kind at what would become Hill Dickinson Stadium when Everton Under-18s played their Wigan Athletic counterparts in the first of three test events.
Following his return as Blues boss, Moyes was insistent that he wouldn’t set foot inside the 52,769 capacity venue until he felt the team’s Premier League status was secured.
Thanks to an upturn in form under the Glaswegian, that was achieved with five games to spare, and he then followed up winning Everton’s last game at Goodison Park with victory in their inaugural competitive fixture on the Mersey waterfront. These successes, along with the 11 away triumphs so far, are no mean feat.
We must remember that the Blues only won five league games in their final season at Goodison, the joint lowest in their history along with 1957/58. They ‘raced’ to four at Hill Dickinson Stadium before the turn of the calendar year before the current difficulties set in.
Whatever you think of Moyes, he knew how to get the best out of Goodison and he now makes a point of encouraging Everton supporters to make as much noise as possible and create an intimidating atmosphere at Hill Dickinson Stadium in his programme notes before every match.
As I’ve said before, the venue is not the issue, it’s the way the team are playing and that’s something that the manager and his players need to find a way to resolve themselves.
The roar at the dock has been just as loud if not louder – with a third more home supporters inside the stadium and the design helping to keep in the noise – than Goodison in moments this season, but the team need to match their away results to maintain it.
The emotional impact on any fanbase moving grounds should never be underestimated and Goodison was especially unique and storied.
However, Evertonians should never feel regret or guilt for finally trading 'The Grand Old Lady' in for a younger model. Once again, and even Blues who haven’t felt an instant infatuation should learn to love her in the years ahead because she’s the best thing to have happened to them in a very long time.
Chris Beesley
Chris Beesley