Goodison Park has been the home of Everton FC since 1892, hosting more top-flight football than any other stadium in the country.
This afternoon marks the end of an era, with the club’s men’s team playing their final game at the ground they call the “grand old lady”.
As the club and the community prepared for the game against Southampton, many people were cherishing their connections to Goodison Park.
Those included groups of fans who were already gathering outside the 39,414-seat stadium, either to try to secure last-second tickets, or to take some of the last stadium tours of the season.
One of those people on the tour was Rachel, who has seen some of Everton‘s greatest triumphs in recent memory, including their 1995 FA Cup Final win against Manchester United.
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“It’s an emotional place,” she said. “Goodison, even on bad days, it’s a place to be. It’s just everything we do and everything we believe. Goodison’s always been there.”
Rachel also has a collection of tattoos related to the club, including their Latin motto on her right arm “Nil Satis Nisi Optimum”, which means “nothing but the best is good enough”.
She says her love of the club was passed down by her parents, both of whom are buried in Anfield Cemetery on a plot that the stadium overlooks.
Inside Goodison Park they were also preparing for a farewell, with the players’ shirts already lined up in the dressing room, while the groundsmen tended to the pitch.
As one of the few old-style stadiums remaining in the top flight, Goodison Park is well-known for its atmosphere, including on raucous derby days against their city rivals Liverpool.
One person who knows what it’s like to play and score at the ground is Graham Stuart, who spent four years at Everton, from 1993 to 1997.
“It’s an incredible atmosphere,” he said. “It can be tough at times. You need a bit of steel about you to play at Goodison Park, the fans will tell you if you’re not playing well, but they’ll also give you a chance and back you all the way. If I could do it again, I’d love to.”
While Stuart speaks to us, another Everton legend, Peter Reid, walks past. Reid, who won European and domestic honours with the club in the 1980s, will be among the host of former players invited to the ground for today’s game, along with Stuart.
A stone’s throw away from Goodison Park, another place preparing for today was the Winslow Inn, a pub even older than the ground itself.
The walls are adorned with pictures of some of Everton’s greatest players, while the manager, Dave Bond, is a lifelong fan himself, who travelled over from Ireland to manage the business in 2014.
New stadium named after law firm sponsor
The club’s new ground at Bramley Moore Dock will be named the Hill Dickinson Stadium with the naming rights going to a Liverpool-based law firm.
But beyond that multimillion-pound financial arrangement, there will be fans hoping to keep their matchday routines alive, which is why the Winslow Inn will put on a shuttle bus next season for fans travelling from there to the new stadium.
Bond summed up the thoughts of many, when he said today will be special but bittersweet.
“This is just going to be on another level of emotion,” he said. “It’s going to be momentous, it’ll be a joyous occasion, but right at the very end when it’s time to go through those turnstiles one last time, it’s going to be absolutely heartbreaking for so many people.”
But after that heartbreak will be a fresh start and another piece of history for what was the first purpose-built football stadium in England.
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Goodison Park will become the home of Everton’s women’s team, making it the largest dedicated women’s football stadium in the UK.
