Everton banners at Goodison Park with The Goodison Gang
Everton banners at Goodison Park with The Goodison Gang
For more than 130 years, Goodison Park was the beating heart of Everton Football Club. Generations of supporters climbed the same narrow stairways and squeezed into the same wooden seats, and plenty of them could tell you exactly where they were sitting for the biggest nights in the club’s history. When the men’s team played their final match there in May 2025, it marked the end of an era for one of the most famous grounds in English football.
The Grand Old Lady, as she is affectionately known, has seen just about everything. These are the moments that made her so special.
How Goodison Park Was Born Out of a Rent Dispute
Everton did not start life at Goodison. In the club’s early years they played at Anfield, but a row with landlord John Houlding over rent led them to pack up and leave in 1892. Houlding responded by forming a new team to fill his empty ground, and that team became Liverpool FC.
Everton, meanwhile, bought a patch of land on the north side of Stanley Park known as Mere Green and built a new home from scratch. Goodison Park opened in August 1892 and is widely regarded as one of the first purpose built football stadiums in the world. Within two years it was hosting an FA Cup final, which tells you just how impressive it was for its time.
A Ground of Firsts and Quirks
Goodison built a reputation for doing things before anyone else. In 1913 King George V paid a visit, making it the first English football ground to welcome a reigning monarch. Then in 1958 it became the first ground in England to install undersoil heating, a remarkable innovation at a time when frozen pitches regularly wiped out entire weekends of fixtures.
The Church in the Corner
Few stadiums anywhere can match the sight of St Luke’s Church tucked into one corner of the ground. It has stood alongside Goodison for generations, and its tower has quietly found its way into the background of countless matchday photographs.
Dixie Dean and the Record That Still Stands
On 5 May 1928, William Ralph Dean, better known to everyone as Dixie, rose to head home his 60th league goal of the season against Arsenal at Goodison Park. Nobody has matched that tally in the English top flight since, and it is hard to imagine anyone ever will. His statue stands proudly outside the ground, and older fans still talk about him with the kind of reverence usually saved for saints.
World Cup Football at Goodison in 1966
When England hosted the World Cup in 1966, Goodison was one of the chosen venues and staged several matches, including a semi final. The most memorable of them was the quarter final between Portugal and North Korea. The North Koreans stunned everyone by racing into a three goal lead, only for Eusébio to take over. He scored four times as Portugal won by five goals to three, and the Goodison crowd witnessed one of the greatest individual performances in World Cup history.
Everton vs Bayern Munich: Goodison’s Greatest Night
Ask Evertonians to name the best night in the ground’s history and most will choose the European Cup Winners’ Cup semi final against Bayern Munich in April 1985. After a goalless first leg in Germany, Everton fell behind at Goodison and went in at half time trailing. Howard Kendall reportedly told his players that the Gwladys Street end would suck the ball into the net, and so it proved. Everton scored three times after the break to win by three goals to one.
The noise that night is still talked about on Merseyside. Weeks later Everton lifted the trophy in Rotterdam, capping a season in which they were also crowned league champions.
The Great Escapes at Goodison Park
Goodison has also played host to some of the most nerve shredding survival battles English football has ever seen.
Everton vs Wimbledon, 1994
Going into the final day of the 1993/94 season, Everton needed to beat Wimbledon and rely on results elsewhere to stay up. Before kick off the Premier League odds made grim reading for supporters, and things looked even worse when Wimbledon raced into a two goal lead. Everton fought back to win by three goals to two, with Graham Stuart grabbing the winner late on, and the club survived in the most dramatic fashion imaginable.
Everton vs Crystal Palace, 2022
History repeated itself almost three decades later. Under Frank Lampard, Everton again found themselves two goals down at half time in a must win match, this time against Crystal Palace. The comeback was completed by a late diving header from the club’s number nine, and thousands of fans poured onto the pitch to celebrate safety.
The Final Whistle at the Grand Old Lady
The last men’s match at Goodison came on 18 May 2025 against Southampton, with Iliman Ndiaye scoring both goals in a two nil win that gave the old ground a fitting send off. There were tears in the stands and plenty lingering after the final whistle, as supporters took one last look around the place that had shaped so many of their lives.
Everton have since moved to their new waterfront stadium at Bramley Moore Dock, while Goodison has been handed over to Everton Women. The bricks and the memories remain, though, and for anyone who ever stood on Gwladys Street, the Grand Old Lady will always feel like home.