Dear Goodison, farewell and thank you

New York Times

19-05-2025

Everton have played at Goodison Park since 1892, but the 2-0 victory over Southampton brought the curtain down on Premier League action.
A move to a new stadium on Liverpool's waterfront will follow. To mark the final few weeks, The Athletic has produced a series of articles — and a special podcast.
You can read the other pieces here and listen to the podcast below.
They lined the streets from before 9am, primed for one last emotional farewell. Some scrambled up walls, others in vans and takeaways, to find space, soak up the atmosphere and catch a view of their heroes.
Goodison Park had witnessed similar scenes in recent years, as fans tried to help Everton stave off relegation but this time, the tone was different.
Emotional, yes. But more than anything, this was a celebration, a reminder of what the club's home of 133 years has meant to so many and a chance to give the send-off it deserved.
Even at that stage, with kick-off not for another three hours, Goodison was a sea of blue.
The smell of pyro filled the air, with clouds of blue fog visible from the club's new home on Liverpool's waterfront a couple of miles away.
The thing with pyro is that it gets everywhere. Under the fingernails, on the face and in the hair. Bald heads turned blue. Everton's devoted supporters were quite literally wearing their colours at times.
Plans had changed, due to the scale of the numbers involved. In conjunction with supporters group The 1878s, Everton had originally planned for the team bus to travel down Goodison Road.
No chance. The coach was rerouted via the Bullens Road, depriving players and fans of another famous moment. Yet nothing — certainly not that or already relegated Southampton — would ruin the party.
Goodison was filled to the brim, straining just to get through the day. The streets around the stadium were at saturation point.
A group of more than 70 former players, including Graeme Sharp, Peter Reid, Wayne Rooney and Tim Cahill, were guests of honour after an early reception at the nearby Titanic Hotel.
The half-time media lounge, which usually serves pies and sausage rolls, became an overspill for Southampton board members. Representatives of The Friedkin Group, which owns the club, took their seats in the directors box, including executive chair Marc Watts and vice-president Brian Walker. Members of the Friedkin family were also in attendance.
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Five international crews were broadcasting live and had to be accommodated, as did a member of the Argentine press pack — Everton supporter Damian Didonato — who travelled without a ticket and was given media accreditation.
Premier League chief executive Richard Masters was booed on his way in, with the two rounds of points deductions for profit and sustainability breaches last season still fresh in Evertonian minds. Grudges hold on Merseyside.
Some of those who did not have a ticket travelled regardless, even if local police had advised them not to. Most simply sat and listened to what was unfolding just out of view.
Blue bunting hung in nearby streets and Everton flags draped the outside of their homes in flags and scarves.
In the days before Sunday's game, crates of beer were sent to those organising street parties on behalf of new CEO Angus Kinnear. Everyone was a part of this momentous occasion if they wanted to be.
It is 11.45am, 15 minutes to kick-off, and Goodison has long been ready. There She Goes by The La's rings around the stadium. Local poet PJ Smith bellows 'Goodison is forever' and is greeted by a roar.
A siren builds anticipation, then comes the type of noise during the Z-Cars theme that only Goodison can conjure. This time, it is as loud as it has ever been. As the teams are read out, the biggest cheer by far is reserved for captain Seamus Coleman.
A crowd of 39,201 cram into Goodison for Everton's final Premier League game there. 'Goodison Park — the end of an era' reads the inscription on the home jerseys. Make no mistake, this is Everton's day.
Z Cars – for one final time in a PL at Goodison pic.twitter.com/OxMGC4IPGL
— Patrick Boyland (@Paddy_Boyland) May 18, 2025
Manager David Moyes had reminded his players beforehand that it was their 'biggest game of the season', and Southampton are suitably obliging.
Six minutes of action. Then, euphoria, as Iliman Ndiaye's shot nestles low in the far corner of the Park End net. A goal that even the legends in attendance would have been proud of. Lift off.
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Coleman can only last 18 minutes before succumbing to a thigh injury — a cruel twist of fate for someone who forged his legacy at Goodison. His ovation comes earlier than expected, but is just as poignant; another moment of unity and thanks. Fans continue to laud other heroes, from Cahill and Yakubu to Richarlison and Marouane Fellaini.
Later, tears stream down Abdoulaye Doucoure's face as he is substituted off in the second half. A farewell from him to Goodison, but maybe to Everton too.
Two Beto goals are disallowed but it does not matter because Championship-bound Southampton are abject. Just before the break, Ndiaye rounds Aaron Ramsdale for his and Everton's second.
The second half belongs mainly to Jordan Pickford, whose saves ensure there is no nervy finale. But really the football is a sideshow.
The last few minutes are just about all four corners of the ground savouring it all and paying homage. Nobody really wants the final whistle to come as it will signal the end of an era.
But it does, and then there is time for a brief pause. Everton have been given dispensation so that supporters can consume alcohol in their seats during the post-match show.
The turnaround is tight but Moyes makes it to his press conference in time. 'The scenes outside the stadium were incredible,' he says. 'It felt like a club needing some big days, some big things in the future, so let's hope this is the start of it.
'Some questions (in the build-up to the game) made me think, 'My goodness, this is difficult to take'. But the feeling might be more of a club coming back together. I tried to make a point to the players that what couldn't happen was that we left here not finishing it off right.'
Then to the show. A violin plays the Z-Cars theme as a lone Toffee Lady walks on the Goodison touchline one final time. At that point, there is barely a dry eye in the ground. Elton John's I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues quickly follows.
This version of Z Cars hits differently. 😭
🎥 https://t.co/3SBRHgZKNf#EndOfAnEra pic.twitter.com/VbUHcrfXhQ
— Everton (@Everton) May 18, 2025
Groups of former players are presented to fans one by one before a lap of the ground, strikers Rooney and Duncan Ferguson among the most popular. Famous Goodison moments play out on the big screen. Legendary former midfielder Reid offers a timely reminder during an interview. 'We may be leaving Goodison, but Goodison will never leave us,' he says.
Ferguson and Rooney soak up the adulation in front of the Gwladys Street Stand, while first-team coach Leighton Baines talks of the 'end of one era, but the start of another we can all be excited about'. That theme of hope is coming through once more for a club too long stuck in the doldrums.
The future will involve Everton Women at Goodison Park and the men's first team at Bramley-Moore Dock. Women's team manager Brian Sorensen hopes to add to Goodison's storied history from next season; Moyes asks the new owners to recognise the need for more before a key summer.
There is more music from Evertonian Bill Ryder-Jones, who performs Spirit of the Blues and The Beatles' In My Life as fireworks stream from the top of the Bullens Road. This is a party rather than a wake.
The most poignant moments are the gaps in between and at the end. The words in the video montages and the quiet periods of contemplation as supporters, some with tears in their eyes, struggle to pull themselves away from their seats. One fan scatters his dad's ashes underneath his seat.
In the distance, a small group of supporters triumphantly hoist an Everton flag at the top of the Bullens Road stand. How they got there is anyone's guess.
Fans on the roof of the Bullens flying an Everton flag! pic.twitter.com/dqisb3UjFg
— Patrick Boyland (@Paddy_Boyland) May 18, 2025
The story will now continue at Goodison and Bramley-Moore. Yet rather than sadness, the overriding emotion on Sunday was gratitude.
'Let's say thank you,' Reid's elegant voiceover said. 'For the memories, for the moments. For being our home.
'Goodison will always be with us… the soul of this place will always live on.
'Forever Everton, forever Goodison Park.'