‘Goodison Park was my football school': Jamie Carragher meets hero Kevin Sheedy

Telegraph

16-05-2025

It is often said you don't know what you've got until it's gone. Evertonians could not be more appreciative of what they are losing when they relocate from Goodison Park.
The groundsman's biggest worry at full-time this Sunday might be a waterlogged pitch because of the number of supporters overwhelmed at the thought of watching a top-flight game there for the last time. The same is true of the most celebrated players.
'I'm not really an emotional person, you know, Jamie. But I think I will be this weekend,' Everton legend Kevin Sheedy tells me as we meet at the stadium to share our Goodison memories.
'I'll not just be thinking about the games I played here and the brilliant times. I'll be thinking about my mum and dad coming to watch me, all the people who work here who I've met over the years. I'm still involved with the club doing stadium tours and meeting supporters in the club lounge and I was with a few fans the other day.
'They were all telling their personal stories; going to Goodison for the first time with their dad or grandad, remembering the result and who scored. As they were talking they all started welling up and the tears came. I think it's going to be that sort of day on Sunday.'
'That was peak Goodison'
Whenever I think of what former chairman Bill Kenwright christened the 'Grand Old Lady', I am transported back to being my seven-year-old self watching Sheedy, Peter Reid, Graeme Sharp and Neville Southall in their prime.
Goodison was my football school and the legends of Howard Kendall's title-winning teams were my teachers, the sights and sounds of the Gwladys Street terrace in the mid-1980s setting me on my journey to a life in football.
You never forget your heroes. In my autobiography I described myself as the 'unofficial chairman of the Kevin Sheedy fanclub'.
'It was a magical time,' Sheedy says of the side which won the title in 1985 and 1987.
'The game everyone talks about most is Bayern Munich, of course (the 1985 European Cup Winners' Cup semi-final, second leg).
'That was peak Goodison. The place was rammed and the team coach could only move at one mile an hour getting us here. We were looking out of the window and knew it was something special. The atmosphere in the warm-up was electric, and then the game itself, needing to score two in the second half. There was no noise like it when we scored the second and third.
'The funny thing is, whenever Kevin Ratcliffe won the toss and we knew we were kicking to the Gwladys Street second half, we just expected it.
'We had such good players, and the best goalkeeper in the world in Neville, that we just knew if we played to our level we would win.'
It was my privilege to be standing on the Gwladys Street for that 3-1 win, seeing Sheedy composed enough amid the Goodison cauldron to deliver a cutting pass, that David Silva would have been proud of in more recent times, in the build-up to Everton's third
Goodison Park was the most intimidating football fortress in the country then.
If you want to fully comprehend the stadium's power, consider this: between Kendall's appointment as Everton manager in May, 1981, until the end of the 1989-90 season, no top-flight English club lost fewer home league games than Everton. Goodison was breached 19 times in 368 games. Over the same period, Liverpool lost 20 at Anfield.
The Goodison factor was at its most potent when the team and supporters were in passionate harmony.
'Goodison was such a huge part of everything we achieved,' says Sheedy.
'You've got to have the team, obviously. But the starting point was the knowledge before every game that teams absolutely hated coming here, with that crowd right on top of them they were frightened to death.
'On the other side of it, we signed some players who could not handle playing in front of our crowd. You need to be mentally strong to play for Everton at Goodison because you don't always have a good game. As long as you're having a go they will stick with you and spur you on.'
'Best team performance I played in'
There were so many childhood highlights for me, especially in the 1984-85 season. Aside from the Bayern win, the 5-0 victory over Manchester United signalled an emerging side had evolved into the finished product, Sheedy scoring twice.
Because it wasn't filmed for Match of the Day, the clips of the goals were limited to a small segment on the BBC News. My dad taped it and sent the cloudy video all around Bootle.
'That was the day I came off the pitch thinking: 'We've got a hell of a team here. We could win the league,'' says Sheedy.
'It was probably the best team performance I ever played in. United had a good team with some great players and we could have scored eight or nine.'
Games with more extensive TV highlights ensured I could memorise and recite every Barry Davies and John Motson commentary.
Ask any Evertonian from that era about the greatest individual performances and they will mention Andy Gray's two diving headers against Sunderland in the title run-in, and the day Ipswich Town visited Goodison in the FA Cup and Sheedy showcased his footballing genius.
From a free-kick on the edge of the penalty area, one of the greatest dead-ball specialists of any era picked out the top left-hand corner, leaving keeper Paul Cooper stranded.
Before he could celebrate, referee Alan Robinson intervened claiming Sheedy had struck it too soon.
Expecting the same attempt, Cooper covered the angle to prevent a repeat. No problem. Sheedy dipped his left-footer over the defensive wall with a delicate chip to the opposite side of the Park End goal.
'It's probably the one I get asked about the most,' says Sheedy.
'When you look at it again you can see Peter Reid having a go at me for taking it too early, so after it is disallowed he says: 'What are we going to do now?'
'So I've said back to him: 'What do you mean 'we?' Get out the f---ing way and I'll put it in the other corner.'
To this day, if I see any footballer with a gorgeous left foot, Sheedy is my reference, and it's the same with set-piece takers. Even when David Beckham was in his prime, I would think: 'He's brilliant at free-kicks, but is he better than Sheedy?'
'I couldn't tell you how many free-kicks I scored,' says Sheedy.
'I know I got plenty in that 84-85 season. I can think of about 12 in my career, at least. What do they say the record is now? Eighteen? It's a pity they didn't keep track of that kind of thing in those days.'
As the 84-85 league title edged closer, the final whistle would see me dashing out to the bookmakers on Goodison Road to check how our nearest rivals had got on.
'What was the Spurs score?' I'd shout. Yes, it feels like a long time ago.
'My best year at Everton'
Strangely, Everton's 1987 championship-winning side is not celebrated as much, but it was Sheedy's positional move from left to central midfield which was a turning point in the title race.
Another of his extraordinary Goodison goals came in a 5-1 win over Leicester City, Sheedy somehow chipping the ball over keeper Ian Andrews from the edge of the penalty area. He scored 16 goals in 37 games that season.
'That was my best year at Everton,' he says.
'I think the fans tend to remember the big away wins more that year – away at Aston Villa and Arsenal – but we lost only once at Goodison.'
Everton's run at the summit ended after that, my Goodison experiences growing in frustration before professional responsibilities led to my switching allegiances.
I had a Gwladys Street view of the greatest ever Goodison derby, the 4-4 draw with Liverpool in the 1991 FA Cup replay.
'I was injured so I watched it from the stands, but there is no doubt the crowd was a massive factor that day, too. Liverpool couldn't finish us off, could they?' says Sheedy.
'Even in those years Liverpool were a better side, they found it hard winning here.'
By 1994, only Southall, Dave Watson and Ian Snodin remained of the last title-winning side, leading to one of my final reckless acts as diehard blue who was now part of Liverpool's youth set-up.
I was attending Lilleshall, the England schoolboys School of Excellence, as Everton drifted towards relegation.
Home for the final weekend but without a ticket, my dad called me at half-time when the score was 2-0 to Wimbledon to say we had to be at Goodison for what looked like it would be a funeral march out of the Premier League. After the comeback 3-2 win, we had a night out and Lilleshall's coaches were a man short at training the following Monday.
'I'm pretty sure I was playing for Blackpool that day. Wherever I was, all I was thinking about was: 'How are Everton getting on?'' says Sheedy, who having started his career at Liverpool made a reverse trip to me in his tribal loyalties.
'Goodison has been a salvation for the club really. It was the fans which kept the team up, not only the Wimbledon game, but on a few occasions since.'
'A passion inherited through generations'
Regeneration at Bramley-Moore Dock beckons from the start of next season, a move everyone understands even if they will leave Goodison Park with a heavy heart.
My first Goodison experience was on August 25, 1984. Everton lost 4-1 to Tottenham Hotspur, but I had the consolation of meeting William Dean.
No, not that one.
Bill Dean was a renowned Liverpool actor who played Harry Cross in the soap opera Brookside and was such a massive Evertonian, he changed his name from Patrick Connolly to that of his hero better known as 'Dixie'.
The 40,000 lucky enough to be there on Sunday will have their own tales to tell.
'One fan told me that for all the years he has been going to Goodison he has been sitting in front of a lady, now aged 86, who as a matter of routine kisses him on the back of the head every time Everton score,' says Sheedy.
'It's the realisation that those little moments will no longer be experienced inside Goodison which make it more than a football game on Sunday.
'It's about the relationship the supporters have with each other and how they've inherited that passion through generations. It's going to be hard for a lot of people to get through that last game.'