Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past few days or don't use social media much, you've surely seen James Tarkowski's thunderous goal that leveled the Merseyside derby, with Everton supporters erupting in joy.
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| From theanalyst.com |
The frenetic celebrations that followed the equalizer are the only natural consequence, given the fact that a late goal in a derby will always generate complete chaos. But the realization that it would be the last ever goal scored in a derby at Goodison Park played a massive part, allowing the Toffees to close this particular chapter on a high. In case you haven't had a chance to watch Tarkowski's goal, here you go:
As we said, the last ever Merseyside derby goal scored at Goodison Park. Everton FC will be moving away from their historic ground and into their new shiny stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock in Vauxhall for the 2025-26 season, leaving Goodison Park to be demolished and turned into flats after serving as a football stadium for 134 years. The historic ground is obviously the longest-serving in the history of Everton, but it wasn't the first, and its development is basically the reason archrivals Liverpool FC were founded, so let's take a step back to Everton's foundation in 1879.
The Toffees' first official matches were played in Stanley Park until 1882, when the club moved to Priory Road, until the man who donated the land to the club asked them to leave because of the increasing noise as the crowds became larger, so the club moved to Anfield Road from 1884 until 1892. Here Everton turned professional, became a founding member of the Football League, won their first championship in 1891 and were the first club to introduce nets at the goals. The land was owned by John Orrell, who was friends with Everton's chairman John Houlding. The latter then bought the land where the stadium was from the former, basically becoming his own club's landlord. He then increased the rent massively from £100 to £250 in 1890 and up to £370 per year in 1892. The turning point in the frictions between new landlord Houlding and Everton FC happened when the club built a new stand on a strip of land that could be used to build an access road to Orrell's landlocked land. When Orrell announced his intentions of developing his land, an access road on the area occupied by Everton FC was needed: the club stated it knew nothing about it, Houlding claimed it did, so the club was forced to either destroy the new stand or compensate Orrell. Houlding proposed the purchase of his and Orrell's land to Everton, but after much negotiating the club vacated Anfield and Houlding was left with an empty stadium. For this reason he formed a new football club, Liverpool FC, but this is another story.
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| Anfield in the early 1900's. Everton had already left by then. From playupliverpool.com |
In a meeting in January 1892 George Mahon suggested Everton could relocate, revealing the option to rent Mere Green field in Walton, and when the club decided to leave Anfield this was the chosen path for the future of the club. The stadium was named after Goodison Road, the road that ran the length of the site. The Mere Green field was owned by Christopher Leyland, who let Everton rent the area until they could buy the place. The club built a covered stand that could host 3,000 spectators and two more stands that could host 4,000 each, and inaugurated the stadium on August 24th 1892, making it the first purpose-built football stadium in the world together with Celtic Park, which was inaugurated on the same day.
In 1895 Everton finally could afford to buy the land: they bought Goodison Park from Leyland for £650 less than what was asked for the land in Anfield three years earlier, and the stadium even had bigger stands than their previous one!
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| The first known image of Goodison Park, published by the Liverpool Echo in 1892 |
The stadium was then developed in multiple stages: in 1895 a new stand was built on Bullens Road and a roof was placed over the stand on Goodison Road, which then was rebuilt as a double-decker in 1906. In 1926 a two-tier stand was built on Bullens Road, with the upper tier seated and a terracing below. The ground became entirely two-tiered in 1938 when the stand on Gwladys Street also became two-tiered. Goodison Park hosted crowds up to 78,000, an amount surpassed in a derby against Liverpool FC in 1948.
After the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, in which 97 Liverpool fans lost their lives crushed due to overcrowding at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, all top-flight English football stadiums were required to be completely seated. At the time, three of the four stands at Goodison Park had standing areas, so the capacity of the ground was greatly reduced to its final 39,572 seats.
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| Goodison Park in the 1980's |
A unique feature of Goodison Park is St Luke's Church, which is located between the Goodison Road and the Gwladys Street stands and sits just yards away from the corner flag. Due to the presence of the church, Everton don't play early kick-offs on Sundays to allow the Sunday services. St Luke's Church quickly became a symbol of Everton FC, with many former Everton players even having their funerals held there. Considering the church is so close to the pitch it comes as no surprise that over the years some fans climbed it to watch the football matches for free, and for that reason barbed wire and anti-climb paint had to be used.
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| St Luke's Church in the background |
Plans for a new relocation of Everton have been made since 1997, and in January 2001 a new 55,000 seat purpose-built stadium was drawn up to be built on the King's Dock in Liverpool. Chairman Bill Kenwright hoped to have the stadium built by 2005, but plans were abandoned as the funds required for the construction were an unsustainable expense for the club. The prospect of a new stadium reappeared in 2016, following investment from Everton's major shareholder Moshiri, and Bramley-Moore Dock was chosen as the site for the new construction, which began in July 2021 and was officially handed over by the contractor in December 2024. The new Everton Stadium will host 52,888 spectators and cost £500m.
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| The new Everton Stadium. From bbc.co.uk |
Goodison Park will be redeveloped into 173 homes and 51,000sq ft of offices, as well as a 63,000 sq ft care home and 107,000 sq ft of spaces that will be developed to benefit the community. The historic ground will be the latest of a long list of English football stadiums to be demolished, adding a notable name to a category that already hosts West Ham's Boleyn Ground, Tottenham's White Hart Lane, Manchester City's Maine Road and Arsenal's Highbury. Everton moving away also means we won't have the majestic sight of Anfield Road and Goodison Park, one of the most known and most beautiful images for any football fan ever:
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| Anfield Road on the left, Goodison Park on the right. From liverpoolecho.co.uk |
As in any other aspect society, the world moves forward and so does football. Goodison Park has seen the Toffees win eight First Division titles, five FA Cups, nine Charity Shields and a Cup Winners' Cup, and has been the home and beating heart of Everton's community for many generations. Hundreds of thousands of Everton fans only ever saw their beloved club play at Goodison Park. To give a perspective of how long the club has stayed there for, when Everton moved in 1892 King George VI, Queen Elizabeth II's father, wasn't even born yet! Moving on will be hard, especially so for older generations of fans who also have fond memories of Everton's past glory, but this is a massive opportunity to develop the club back into a successful position. We don't know what the future holds, hopefully an improvement to the Toffees' recent years of struggle, the only thing we know for sure is that their fans will follow the team in massive numbers as they've done for almost 150 years, and despite leaving their historic home they will quickly make the new Everton Stadium feel special.
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