Latest news with #Evertonian
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Hartley back with England after shifts in garden centre
Tom Hartley is England's forgotten man of 2024. The leading wicket-taker on the tour of India in the winter, he took nine wickets in the all-timer of a win in Hyderabad but has not featured since England returned home. When Ben Stokes' side were playing their Tests in Pakistan in October, the left-arm spinner was listening to Test Match Special while working a shift at the family garden centre. "I have found my plant knowledge has come on loads," he tells BBC Sport. Hartley, 26, could make his England return this week in the one-day international series against West Indies, which starts on Thursday at Edgbaston. He has had a decent start to the season with Lancashire but has still been putting in the hours amid the perennials. "It is a 5am or 5:30am wake-up, walk the dogs, water the plants and then set up jobs for the staff, supervise and help where I can," Hartley says. "They clock off at 5pm and I get organised for the next day. "It probably is too much and I feel myself getting tired at times. "If my on-field wasn't going well I would have to change things but I am doing all right on the field at the minute so it must be helping me." The garden centre - Hartley's Nurseries to give it its proper name - is 10 miles or so outside of Liverpool and is a sixth-generation family business. Hartley's father, Bill, won 4x400m gold at the European Championship in 1974 and later took on the company. The plan remains that Tom will do the same one day. "My dad helps me out a bit but you have got to learn on your feet," he says. "It is a bit of trial and error. Some prefer a lot of sunlight, some prefer the shade. "It settles me on the field knowing there is something for me there after cricket and it takes the pressure off a little bit. "If you have a bad game or season it is not the end of the world." Hartley holds no hard feelings over his England omissions since India. After the series concluded in Dharamsala coach Brendon McCullum, the one to call him last week to inform him of his recall, said "you would have taken that at the start of the winter". Lancashire's Evertonian, who was originally picked because of his similarities to India's tall left-arm spinner Axar Patel and was smashed by Yashasvi Jaiswal in an opening nine-over spell which cost 63, is inclined to agree. "It beat any of my expectations," he says. "To say you have a Test five-for and debut it is something you can always fall back on." On returning to the UK, Hartley had his appearances for Lancashire in the County Championship limited by the arrival of Australia spinner Nathan Lyon. This winter his appearances were limited by a broken hand - an injury picked up on England Lions' tour of Australia. He turned out for his club side Ormskirk in the Liverpool and District league to keep his arm turning over at the start of the season, as he had done at the end of the 2024 campaign. "I came away tired in the face from laughing so much," he says. "It is nice to take a few wickets. Sometimes here [at Old Trafford] you can go weeks and weeks without four or five in the bag." Time out of the side has also provided moments for reflection. Under Stokes and McCullum, England are aggressive with the bat but also with the ball - where the message is always to hunt wickets. Hartley does not disagree with the mindset but is keen to remember his own strengths. "Sometimes you look at why you are not being picked and the people who are being picked and think 'if I do that maybe that will help me get back in'," he says. "Personally I have to think 'that is not me'. "I hate going for runs, especially in white-ball. If I can go at six an over or less I will naturally pick up one or two wickets." Hartley's return also comes at an interesting time for him personally and for England's limited-overs cricket. They have lost 10 of 11 white-ball matches this year and Harry Brook has been appointed captain after the dismal Champions Trophy exit. In the weeks since, England's supremo Rob Key has flagged the importance of England improving their batting against and bowling of left-arm spin if they are to return to the summit of the white-ball game. They have bowled the fewest overs of left-arm spin of all of the Full Member nations in ODI cricket since the start of 2022, and England's left-arm spinners - Hartley, Liam Dawson and Jacob Bethell - have taken just seven wickets. The result has been Hartley's recall to England's ODI squad and Dawson's return for the T20 series against West Indies that follows. "You look at a lot of the top sides around the world and they do have a left-arm spinner," Hartley says. "For whatever reason it seems to work." At 35, Dawson's recall looks to be one with an eye on next year's T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. With Hartley, nine years Dawson's junior, in the ODI squad, he has the first chance to stake a claim for a place at the 50-over World Cup in 2027. "Bumble [the former England coach and iconic commentator David Lloyd] came up to me the other day and said you don't know anything about spin bowling until you are 27," Hartley says. "You don't realise you are learning but you are, always. "It comes up in certain situations and then pops into your head what you have to do. "You end up having more options, especially when it is not spinning as much - come over, go wide, use the footholes more, change the fields. "You need that experience and game knowledge." Blooms and bowling might be more similar than he knows...
United News of India
27-05-2025
- Sport
- United News of India
Hartley back with England after shifts in garden centre
London, May 27 (UNI) Tom Hartley is England's forgotten man of 2024, the leading wicket-taker on the tour of India in the winter, he took nine wickets in the all-timer of a win in Hyderabad but has not featured since England returned home. When Ben Stokes' side were playing their Tests in Pakistan in October, the left-arm spinner was listening to Test Match Special while working a shift at the family garden centre. "I have found my plant knowledge has come on loads," he tells BBC Sport. Hartley, 26, could make his England return this week in the one-day international series against West Indies, which starts on Thursday at Edgbaston. He has had a decent start to the season with Lancashire but has still been putting in the hours amid the perennials. "It is a 5am or 5:30am wake-up, walk the dogs, water the plants and then set up jobs for the staff, supervise and help where I can," Hartley said. "They clock off at 5pm and I get organised for the next day. "It probably is too much and I feel myself getting tired at times. "If my on-field wasn't going well I would have to change things but I am doing all right on the field at the minute so it must be helping me." The garden centre - Hartley's Nurseries to give it its proper name - is 10 miles or so outside of Liverpool and is a sixth-generation family business. Hartley's father, Bill, won 4x400m gold at the European Championship in 1974 and later took on the company. The plan remains that Tom will do the same one day. "My dad helps me out a bit but you have got to learn on your feet," he said. "It is a bit of trial and error. Some prefer a lot of sunlight, some prefer the shade. "It settles me on the field knowing there is something for me there after cricket and it takes the pressure off a little bit. "If you have a bad game or season it is not the end of the world." Hartley holds no hard feelings over his England omissions since India. After the series concluded in Dharamsala coach Brendon McCullum, the one to call him last week to inform him of his recall, said "you would have taken that at the start of the winter". Lancashire's Evertonian, who was originally picked because of his similarities to India's tall left-arm spinner Axar Patel and was smashed by Yashasvi Jaiswal in an opening nine-over spell which cost 63, is inclined to agree. "It beat any of my expectations," he said. "To say you have a Test five-for and debut it is something you can always fall back on." On returning to the UK, Hartley had his appearances for Lancashire in the County Championship limited by the arrival of Australia spinner Nathan Lyon. This winter his appearances were limited by a broken hand - an injury picked up on England Lions' tour of Australia. He turned out for his club side Ormskirk in the Liverpool and District league to keep his arm turning over at the start of the season, as he had done at the end of the 2024 campaign. "I came away tired in the face from laughing so much," he said. "It is nice to take a few wickets. Sometimes here [at Old Trafford] you can go weeks and weeks without four or five in the bag." Time out of the side has also provided moments for reflection. Under Stokes and McCullum, England are aggressive with the bat but also with the ball - where the message is always to hunt wickets. Hartley does not disagree with the mindset but is keen to remember his own strengths. "Sometimes you look at why you are not being picked and the people who are being picked and think 'if I do that maybe that will help me get back in'," he said. "Personally I have to think 'that is not me'. "I hate going for runs, especially in white-ball. If I can go at six an over or less I will naturally pick up one or two wickets." Hartley's return also comes at an interesting time for him personally and for England's limited-overs cricket. They have lost 10 of 11 white-ball matches this year and Harry Brook has been appointed captain after the dismal Champions Trophy exit. In the weeks since, England's supremo Rob Key has flagged the importance of England improving their batting against and bowling of left-arm spin if they are to return to the summit of the white-ball game. They have bowled the fewest overs of left-arm spin of all of the Full Member nations in ODI cricket since the start of 2022, and England's left-arm spinners - Hartley, Liam Dawson and Jacob Bethell - have taken just seven wickets. UNI BM
New York Times
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Liverpool's lost fans and the Premier League title they never got to see
When doctors at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital switched off the ventilator that had been keeping Paul Smith alive, his condition was so desperate that he slipped away within a minute. His wife, Marie, held a phone close to his ear, not really knowing whether he could hear his favourite song, or as she puts it, 'the only song he knew'. Advertisement In her soul, Marie remains an Evertonian and she'd never liked You'll Never Walk Alone because of its attachment to Liverpool, her team's local rivals and the team Paul supported all his life, but it has since taken on a different meaning. 'I get upset now because it's poignant,' Marie admits. Paul died in April 2020, aged 52, an early victim of the Covid-19 pandemic that claimed around 2,000 lives in Liverpool alone. Not a day goes by that Marie and her daughter, Megan, do not think of Paul, and the past few weeks have felt especially bittersweet. Liverpool's Premier League win has been a source of jubilation in the red half of the city, especially as the club's previous title — secured a few months after Paul passed away, with the pandemic still raging — was played out to a backdrop of empty stadiums. On Sunday, Anfield will salute its heroes for the trophy lift after the final game of the season against Crystal Palace. The following day, more than half a million fans are expected to throng the streets for a parade. Yet, for Marie, Megan, and others like them whose loved ones were denied the chance to see their team crowned champions of England once again, it will stir painful memories. 'I'm made up we've won the league, but I'm constantly thinking, 'Oh, he'd be doing this now, or he'd be saying that, and making sure he had the day off for the parade',' Megan says. 'His flags would be out. A flag on the front door and a flag on the nearest lamppost. Instead, we're planning on putting flags on his grave.' Football was, in many ways, the making of the Smith family. When Paul met Marie in 1993, he was working as an exit steward at Anfield. There, by the famous Kop stand, he saw her performing her duties as a volunteer police officer. Marie remembers going home and telling her mum she'd been asked out on a date. Though Marie had accepted, she wasn't sure whether to show up, but her mum insisted she go. 'How would you like it if it was your own son?' she argued. Advertisement After they married three years later, they lost a child, and Megan, born in 1998, was six weeks premature. She would develop a close bond with her father. As far as football was concerned, she was only ever going to support one team. Paul eventually got a job greeting guests as an attendant on the doors of Anfield's corporate lounges. He regarded the task of meeting and, in a few cases, getting to know some of the most decorated figures to represent his club as a privilege. Megan thinks they liked him because he'd talk to them like ordinary people about day-to-day matters. If he discovered any secrets, he certainly didn't share them. Paul stepped away from stewarding in 2017 — around the time Megan continued the family's association with the club by becoming a tour guide at Anfield — because he wanted to be a fan again. Paul's hero was Bill Shankly, but his daughter thinks he could see what was coming under Jurgen Klopp. Sometimes, Paul would be invited back into Anfield's Carlsberg Lounge and Megan went with him on one occasion. She did not know then, but it was the last time she saw a live match with her dad. 'Liverpool lost and my dad wasn't happy,' Megan says. 'I wish I'd paid more attention.' Paul tended to mark Liverpool's achievements by teasing his wife — 'He loved winding up Evertonians,' Marie admits — and when the club won the Champions League in 2019, the house was decorated in flags. Megan can remember her dad telling her that the first league championship in 30 years was next, and he was right. Liverpool became champions in June 2020, but Paul did not live to see it. Two months and two days before the title was confirmed, on April 23, 2020, he passed away from Covid-19 after becoming ill just three weeks earlier. Megan and Marie agree they have not come to terms with the absence of the man they adored. 'We never will,' says Marie. 'We have just learned to live around it.' Advertisement Events can be triggering, including Liverpool's recent title win. Megan thinks it was easier to avoid getting caught up five years ago because of the lockdown restrictions muffling celebrations across the city, but this time, watching thousands line the streets of Anfield, the fireworks and the fervour, was just too much. Paul, she feels, should have been there to see it, too. Richie Mawson, another Liverpool fan, died a week before Paul in Liverpool's Aintree hospital, not far from the course that hosts the Grand National horse race. The two men did not know one another, but they had spent their adult lives obsessed with the same football club, living only a couple of miles apart. The geography is significant because the Anfield area of Merseyside became one of the key landing stages for Covid-19 in Britain, thanks to the decision to allow Liverpool's Champions League last-16 tie with Atletico Madrid on March 12 to go ahead in front of a capacity crowd of 52,000, including 3,000 travelling fans from Spain. Madrid had already been placed into severe lockdown restrictions, with matches in the city having been staged without fans the previous weekend. The arrival of such a large influx of visitors meant districts such as Anfield and nearby Vauxhall, where Paul was from, and Kirkdale, the area Richie was connected to since birth, became breeding grounds for the virus. The timeline leading towards their deaths suggests it is unlikely they became unwell as a direct consequence of the fixture, but as a wave of illness swept across the region, they were in its path. Unlike Paul, Richie had attended the Atletico match. His son Jamie can remember discussing with his dad what was happening in Spain and Italy, where television footage was showing body bags piling high outside hospitals. 'He'd be on the phone to me saying, 'Should this game be going ahead?'. I said, 'Dad, I don't think it should be, but you've just got to follow what they believe is right'.' Richie, who was 70 when he died, was a retired train driver. He was, according to Jamie, a typical Liverpudlian: 'He loved his family. He loved a bet. He loved going out with his mates for a pint. He also loved his holidays in Spain. But his passion was Liverpool FC.' Richie had been following the club for 63 years, starting when the team was struggling in the old second division. Within five years of Jamie's birth in 1972, he had a son to take with him, and together they travelled all over Europe. Advertisement Like Paul, Richie had been at Hillsborough in 1989 when 97 Liverpool supporters were killed at an FA Cup semi-final due to institutional failures of the authorities overseeing the match. Richie and Jamie, then aged 16, were relatively safe in the upper tier of the Leppings Lane stand, but getting there had been terrifying. Outside, Jamie had witnessed the congestion and the screams of fans, begging the police to do something about it. They made it in and as Richie went to the toilet, Jamie was waiting near the gangway, just as a gate was opened and hundreds of fans rushed in. Jamie positioned himself next to a wall and remembers his dad suddenly appearing, shouting, 'Jamie, Jamie!' Richie battled his way through the crowds, stopping his son from being swept away into an enclosure where so many would lose their lives. Jamie has never forgotten what he witnessed from his position above the death trap. As men, women and children were lifted towards him as they tried to escape the crush, Jamie and his dad started crying. 'What happened will stay with me for the rest of my life.' Despite that trauma, Richie did not lose his love for football, and certainly not for Liverpool. Most of all, he loved European nights at Anfield, so when the UK government gave approval for the Atletico game to take place, he was not going to miss it. Liverpool lost 3-2 that night, ensuring their elimination from the competition, and afterwards, Richie called Jamie from the Dark House, his favourite pub back in Kirkdale. Richie sounded concerned even though he had worn a mask. An hour or so before kick-off, the World Health Organisation had declared a pandemic. 'I told my dad it was better to get home than stay in the pub,' Jamie says. 'I said to him, 'You'll be OK… you'll be OK'.' Steve Rotheram, Labour's metro mayor for the Liverpool city region, had been sitting near Richie in Anfield's Sir Kenny Dalglish Stand. He was also in two minds whether to go, but decided to follow the official government guidance, which meant sanitising his hands repeatedly as he sat in the back of a cab on the way to the ground. Later in the pandemic, Rotheram would play a prominent role in Liverpool's response to the outbreak, but at that point he was not statutorily responsible — still a source of frustration today as, in his words, it left regions such as his 'blindfolded'. In 2023, an inquiry into Britain's response to Covid-19 found that the country was ill-prepared for a pandemic after more than a decade of cuts under successive Conservative governments. In that inquiry, Rotheram complained that nobody in a position of authority on Merseyside or the neighbouring Wirral area was consulted when the UK government decided, in February 2020, to place British nationals living in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the first cases of the virus were recorded, in a secure unit at Arrowe Park Hospital, on the other side of the River Mersey from Liverpool. It was, in Rotheram's view, a sign of things to come. Advertisement 'Those significant decisions that were taken on behalf of us all had really terrible and disastrous consequences for some families who still now are absolutely convinced that their loved ones died of Covid-19 because they attended a football game,' Rotheram tells The Athletic. On the day of the Atletico game, Liverpool had six confirmed cases. By April 2, the figure had risen to 262. A month later, Liverpool had one of the highest death tolls in the UK outside of London: Paul Smith and Richie Mawson were among the 303 people to have succumbed to the virus. For Jamie, the loss of his father continues to feel raw. He was an only child and he thought of his dad as his best mate. From his home in Formby, he used to pop into his parents' place in Kirkdale before walking to Anfield with his dad. He misses strolling through the park and going for a pint with him on his way to the ground, before repeating the routine on their way home. They used to have season tickets right next to one another, but since 2020, Jamie has not returned to his seat and he will not be at the stadium on Sunday for the trophy lift. 'It's very, very hard just to go, either with a mate or even with my daughter,' he says. 'My dad and I sat together, we hugged, we cried, experiencing every single emotion together. And then I just cannot for the life of me at this moment in time drag myself up the ground because I'm thinking, 'Where is he?'.' It was only a few days after attending the Atletico match that Paul Machin began to feel unwell. Machin, a host on the popular Redmen TV YouTube channel, remembers going to a supermarket to help prepare for his cousin's birthday and having a sense that something was creeping up on him, but hoped that paracetamol and vitamin supplements would snuff it out. At the party that followed, he found out that his pregnant sister was experiencing the same symptoms. Advertisement Lockdown was still four days away when, on March 19, Machin posted a video on YouTube to explain what was happening to him. His sister had since tested positive for Covid-19 and he was feeling horrendous, describing the 'worst flu imaginable' with a shortness of breath thrown in. He was struggling to take in lungfuls of air and a trip to the bathroom became an ordeal because a few steps were so exhausting. Just when he was beginning to feel a bit better, the virus returned, hitting him like a 'tonne of bricks — that's when you realise how serious it really was, because I was totally, totally wiped out'. Machin says he has not quite felt himself since. He describes brain fog-like symptoms commonly cited by those who have suffered from long Covid, struggling to find words that used to come easily. Machin has no doubt that attending the Atletico match caused him to become ill. He interviewed fans at close quarters before the game as part of his Redmen TV duties and recalls the euphoric celebrations on the Kop that accompanied each of Liverpool's two goals, bodies piling on bodies, heedless of the wider dangers. He was 37 in 2020 and considers himself one of the lucky ones. Older people, such as Paul Smith and Richie Mawson, were less fortunate, even though both men were in good condition with no underlying health conditions. Paul's wife, Marie, was already aware of the virus' dangers because she was a supervisor at the accident and emergency unit in the hospital where her husband ultimately met his end. She was there when the first person was admitted with Covid-19, wearing her face mask and apron. It was her job to oversee the cleaning of the lift after the patient was rushed into a secure ward where doctors were covered in personal protective equipment. Marie still has the letter that confirms Paul — who had taken a part-time job as a cashier at a supermarket in Aintree — was considered an essential worker. When he began complaining of tiredness, the family thought he was simply exhausted from the long shift patterns: he was often up at 4am, arriving at work an hour later. Across those early weeks of the pandemic, he would sometimes not return home until 8pm, as panic buying gripped the city. On April 1, Paul started displaying symptoms of Covid. After being told to isolate in a separate room, he was admitted to hospital on April 5 after telling Marie he could not breathe. Less than 24 hours later, he was placed on a ventilator. When Megan entered the ward where her dad was about to die, she was advised by nurses where to look. On one side, there were makeshift cubicles made out of plasterboards. There were barely enough curtains to give people attached to ventilators some privacy. 'They were completely out of it,' she remembers. 'I don't know how the staff did it. It was like a war zone. It was awful.' Advertisement The doctors had spent the previous hours turning Paul from his back to his front to see whether they could get more oxygen into his lungs, but his condition was worsening. Marie thinks he made it through the previous weeks because of video messages from legendary Liverpool players such as Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Bruce Grobbelaar and David Johnson. 'The doctors and nurses made sure he passed away with dignity and respect, and I will forever be grateful to them,' Megan says. It was a different experience for the Mawson family, who could not enter the hospital where Richie was losing his fight for life. Jamie wanted to protect his mum from what was happening. After a telephone conversation with his dad, he knew he was struggling. From then on, updates went through Jamie. For a week or so, he was told that his dad was 'comfortable', but Jamie knew that meant he was not improving. When Jamie was told by a doctor there was nothing else he could do to save Richie, he begged him to carry on trying. 'I told him: 'Just give him another week',' Jamie says. 'The doctor said that he'd been in hospital for almost a month without responding to any treatment. He said: 'I've got no option, I'm going to have to turn the machine off'.' Jamie and Mary said goodbye to Richie through a video call, with a nurse holding the phone up to him, before the machine was switched off. 'I asked the nurse to hold his hand because we were not allowed to be there. He looked bloated and swollen because of the steroids. I'm screaming, crying my eyes out in front of this poor nurse. She said, 'Don't worry, Jamie, I'm not going to leave him', but we had to end the call. We were uncontrollable.' When Liverpool won the Premier League title on June 25, 2020, two months after Richie Mawson's death, Jamie and Mary marked the occasion in Formby by raising a glass of champagne to the man they loved. The day before, when Liverpool returned to Anfield for a game against Crystal Palace for the first time since the season was interrupted, a steward's jacket with Paul Smith's name on it had been placed on the Kop in his honour. The club's former steward used to call his daughter his 'shadow'. Megan says it's the little things she misses the most about her dad: asking if she was OK as she walked past where he was sitting on the couch, walking through the front door after work, or his text messages. 'To some people, they might seem like little things, but to me they are massive,' she says. 'If I ever felt worried or anxious, I'd always go to my dad. If I ever thought I didn't know what to do or I needed advice, it'd be my dad.' Advertisement Megan is grieving her loss and has been diagnosed with PTSD because of some of the things she saw in the hospital as her dad passed away. She says she is plagued by thoughts about how he contracted Covid-19. Was it because of her? Though it seems very unlikely, she will never know for sure. What she does know is how her dad would have reacted to Liverpool's latest title triumph. 'It just feels so unfair,' she says. 'He'd want Liverpool fans to celebrate it properly because he was such a mad Red. But then he'd also say, 'Remember us, the ones who didn't make it; remember us when you're having a pint'.' (Top photos: Courtesy of the Smith and Mawson families; Getty Images; design: Dan Goldfarb)
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Everton fans on the end of a Goodison era: ‘I'll be thinking about my dad, my brothers, my son'
An era lasting 133 years comes to an end this Sunday as Everton's men's team play their final game at Goodison Park. In 1892 the team left their former home at Anfield – which Liverpool FC adopted soon after – upping sticks due to an argument over rent, to set up a new home, a short walk across Stanley Park. Goodison Park became the first major football venue built in England and since then no other English football ground has staged more top-level men's matches. But it seems the impending bulldozers have performed a welcome U-turn – a deal to have the women's team playing there has just been announced. Despite the US owners confirming the ground will become the country's first major stadium to be dedicated to a women's team, everyone knows it won't be quite the same place. It seems like there will have to be structural changes including the taking out of seats in the top decks to reduce the capacity. Perhaps Everton will also turn Goodison into some sort of museum, where in 20 or 30 years people will still be wandering in, scratching their heads at the way football used to be watched. But it's not just the stands and the pitch that make a football stadium the way it is. The impending move to the glitzy new ground at Bramley-Moore dock has focused Evertonian minds on what Goodison means to them, what memories they have: what made them come week in, week out to support their team, in the ground they call home. An aerial view of Goodison Park, circa 1965, and flags commemorating the stadium on sale outside the ground in 2025. *** If you cut married couple Jayne and Steve Jones, they would bleed blue; if you want to know anything about Everton and Goodison and what it means to the fans, they are the people to ask. Having both been born in Liverpool, they eventually moved slightly north where they founded and now run the Croston Blues fan club in a Lancashire village. You can guess the name they gave their house there – it begins with a 'G' and ends in a 'N'. They are also active volunteers for the 1878s (named after the year the club was formed), the group which has organised the flags and banner displays seen at the ground this season. Jayne remembers her first visit to Goodison: 'I was here when Bob Latchford scored his 30th goal and the reason I was here was because they used to open the gates at the end and I couldn't afford to go at the time, I was so young. I came in right at the end and watched his 30th goal being scored. I snuck in without paying and that was my first time.' Concerned by the apparent lack of successful goal scorers, a national newspaper offered a £10,000 prize to the first man to score 30 league goals in a single season. On 29 April 1978, the last day of the season, a double against Chelsea at Goodison Park helped Latchford reach that total, secure the money and write himself into Everton folklore. Steve's first game was in 1963, the final match of the season, when Everton beat Fulham to win the First Division title. 'The captain Roy Vernon scored three and my dad's idol Alex Young scored one. All that I can remember, I was in the paddock standing on a little wooden box that my dad made, Alex Young got the ball in front of me and this feller near me shouted: 'Show 'em your arse Alex!' and as a young kid I didn't know what it meant, I just thought it was weird. It was only years later that I really understood.' Steve and Jayne Jones, founder members of the Croston Blues fan club, sit in their seats. Steve has watched a game from every stand in the ground accompanied at different times by his father, brothers and sons. Now he sits next to Jayne, who has had the same seat in the middle deck of the Main Stand for 35 years. 'I've sat with almost the same people for all that time,' says Jayne. 'A few have changed as their season tickets change but they are all my friends. When we came back after Covid I got Everton cakes made to give out to everyone. Same at Christmas, I get cakes for everyone. The really sad thing is I'm not going to see them again. There's people like Stan who just sits there and shouts 'Referee!' and he gets louder and louder as the game goes on – I swear to God he's got a bottle of brandy going in his hot drink. It's just characters like that. All those people who are around me, they're my friends but I haven't got their contact details and I'm not going to sit next to them again. It's going to be totally alien sitting with different people.' Steve adds: 'My memories of the ground? Well, it's the biggest part of my life, Everton and Goodison Park. When my dad died, we tried to get his ashes on the pitch but were told all the plots were taken up. We still wanted to do it and it was the end of the season and my two brothers and one of my lads stayed on after the match until everyone had gone. We were looking at the stewards walking up and down and were right down at the front. In the end I said to a steward: 'Excuse me mate, I've got my dad's ashes here and I just want to sprinkle them, can you just give us five minutes,' and he said: 'Yes, no problem,' and just turned and walked the other way. The four of us jumped up, sprinkled the ashes, had a few minutes and jumped off. It's a sacred place in that, at least for me. 'Family is a big thing for me because I was told I'm an Evertonian. I had no choice, my dad's dad was an Evertonian, that was it, there was never any choice, we just went along with it. Remember Penguin biscuits, all different colours, red, blue, yellow, green? My dad – pure theatre – we'd be at the dinner table, he'd say: 'We've got Penguins for afters,' he'd open the packet, he'd get the red ones and throw them over his shoulder and say: 'Don't you ever eat them, you'll kill yourself.' He'd go: 'What colour do you want?' so me and my brother, we'd always have the blue ones. Nothing's changed, we bought a bag of pegs last week – I threw all the red ones in the bin, it's mental.' Different generations of fans inside and outside Goodison Park. In 1994 Everton had a great escape on the final day against Wimbledon. They were 2-0 down after 20 minutes, then scored three goals to narrowly avoid relegation from the Premier League. Steve was in the Park End with his father. 'Never run on the pitch unless you play on it,' Steve's father had always told him. 'Everyone was running on after Wimbledon, so I asked my dad: 'Do you want to go on the pitch with them?' 'Come on,' he said, and we walked on. I asked him that night: 'You know those red Penguins, whatever happened to them?' And he said: 'When you went to bed, me and your mum ate them!'' Jayne has a plan in place for the final game on Sunday. 'I'm bringing my dad, I've continued to buy him a season ticket, even though he lives 300 miles away and he's 86. I'm going to bring a hip flask and I'm going to hide it. At the end of the game, I'm going to sit here with my dad and Steve and gaze around, sipping from my flask. I'm dead lucky because I can bring my dad to the last game, there's so many people, Steve included, who have that affinity with the actual ground because of people they've lost who've been part of their life and part of the memories.' Steve says quietly: 'At the end of the game, I'll just sit there and take it all in. I'll be thinking about my dad, my brothers, my son, all those people that I have been with here.' Plaques dedicated to deceased fans at the Park End of Goodison Park. It's my dad, he passed away three years ago. I promised I'd take him to the final derby at Goodison Rumours abound among the Goodison fanbase regarding whether supporters will try to take their seats home with them after the Southampton game. Everton have announced that current season ticket holders can buy their seat backs, 'elegantly packaged' with a certificate of authenticity in a presentation box for £100. Apparently ingenious fans have been bringing plasticine into recent games to make precise moulds of the screws holding the seats in place, so they know exactly the right size tool to bring with them. As Jayne says: 'Some might think they deserve that seat they have spent 30 years in.' But Steve cautions: 'You might get the odd one or two but Everton have said that it will be a criminal offence. Some might try but you can't come in with an angle-grinder can you?' Tiles in the toilets have already started to disappear. Alternative souvenirs to removing parts of the ground are available, for example, a construction brick replica of the stadium, and for children, a replica of the 'Echoes of an Era' top the players wore ahead of February's Merseyside derby. *** Andrey Seleznev is an Everton fan and member of the Russian Toffees fan club. He lives in Krasnodar in southern Russia. He decided he needed to take his son Roman to the recent Ipswich game. 'It's hard to get flights from Russia right now so I took my car and drive 12 hours to Georgia and then a flight to London and then move to Liverpool so it's a long trip but worth it! I needed to see Goodison before it got destroyed so I could say goodbye to the stadium. I came here for the first time 20 years ago, we played against Man Utd and we won 1-0, Duncan Ferguson scored and it was unbelievable! I love it here so much, so I did my best to get the visa and collect the money for this trip. I want to show Goodison Park to my son. He's not a big fan of football, he's good at mathematics but I needed to show this stadium to him!' Andrey Seleznev (right) and his son Roman, who live in Krasnodar, pose with Russian Toffees stickers on Goodison Road. *** Joshua Jones from Abergavenny decided to surprise his girlfriend, Millie Richardson (from Cwmbran), before the recent Ipswich game at Goodison. 'Millie's father has been a big Everton supporter since 1966 and so this was passed on to his daughters,' says Joshua. 'With us being from South Wales, Liverpool can be a long way to travel, but we knew we had to go to one of the last games at Goodison Park. I thought this would be a great opportunity to propose. Millie had absolutely no idea. She and her family had originally organised the trip for her dad's birthday. We told her that a friend of his had arranged for us to have a look around the grounds and that's when I got down on one knee. I knew she wouldn't suspect a thing, as I am a big West Ham supporter myself. She was surprised I would even put an Everton shirt on my back!' Joshua Jones pops the question to girlfriend Millie Richardson. *** Paul Cookson is the Poet in Residence for the National Football Museum, and just happens to be an Everton fan. He grew up in Preston but, having relocated from Lancashire to the East Midlands, he is unable to go to every game at Goodison. However, he is still a passionate fan and his feelings towards the ground are undiminished. 'I can't exactly remember the first match I saw at Goodison, my dad took me to lots of grounds in the north but we came to Everton more than any others. 'After that, I remember coming to games on my own on the bus. As a 10-year-old in the early 70s, we weren't allowed to stay up late to watch Match of the Day. Just to be at a stadium where real football was taking place and to see the people that you got on football cards or on your Esso coins or in your Shoot magazine. To come along, be part of a crowd and to actually see players I'd only occasionally seen on the telly, that was so exciting. It's the scale of it, you're a small person with big people and you're a part of something bigger than yourself and you're all here for the same reason. Paul Cookson, the poet in residence for the National Football Museum, writes in his notepad at the top of the players' tunnel. Having written countless football poems, including many about former Everton players, Paul knew he had to produce something to mark the end of an era at Goodison. 'Poetry has many purposes but one is to reflect and capture a mood. In this way, the poet is a mirror that reflects on behalf of the many but perhaps from a different angle so that your words add something new as well. 'With this poem I wanted to try and sum up the feelings of fans regarding the special place that is Goodison, its community presence, absolute warmth and friendliness. A place we are all welcomed. Yes, it's about Goodison Park - but it's also about how every fan feels about their ground and their team. That place of continuity, that solid reassuring constant in ever trying times.' This is the place where dreams all start The place where we all play our part The place that always leaves its mark The place forever in our heartOur place – Goodison Park Our place – Goodison Park This place where gods trod hallowed turf Walked on water, down to earth Strode among us, proved their worth This place we pray, this place we curse Hope for the best, fear the worst Where we all fell in love at first This place forever in our heartOur place – Goodison Park Our place – Goodison Park Celebration, tense relief That tests our faith, our belief A place of joy, a place of grief The agony, the ecstasy The magic and the misery But still the only place to be This place forever in our heartOur place – Goodison Park Our place – Goodison Park School of science, dogs of war We've seen it all and much, much more Win, lose or draw, we know the score Memories we hold so dear The goals live on so crystal clear We all know just why we're here This place forever in our heartOur place – Goodison Park Our place – Goodison Park The romance of the history and everything these stands have seen Rooney, Kendall, Harvey, Ball, The Golden Vision, Dixie Dean Every hero, legends all, in royal blue on emerald green This place forever in our heart This place forever in our heartOur place – Goodison Park Our place – Goodison ParkWe call home – Goodison Park Since the Covid lockdowns Paul has written and published a new poem every day. You can find these @paulcooksonpoet on X or Poet Paul Cookson on Facebook. The first 1,000 are available in two hardback collections: The Man Who Launched A Thousand Poems Volumes 1 & 2, published by Confetti falls from the top deck of the main stand as the players come out onto the pitch before the Premier League match against Ipswich. In 1971 the stand on Goodison Road, which was built in 1909 and housed the offices and players' facilities, was demolished and replaced by a three-tiered Main Stand, the first three-tiered stand in England, which cost £1m. Looking up into the Main Stand on Goodison Road, wooden seats in the Main Stand, the narrow players' tunnel leading onto the pitch at Goodison Park. Queueing up to go through the narrow turnstiles just before kick-off and a road sign for Goodison Road. The home changing room and a quote from Everton legend Alan Ball on the wall of the players' showers. Fans taking photos with Neville Southall, the former Everton goalkeeper, outside the Main Stand on Goodison Road and welcoming the Everton team bus ahead of the Merseyside derby in February. Completed in 1926, the two-tier steel frame and wooden floor stand was designed by Archibald Leitch, the go-to stadium architect for the age. The upper tier was seated, with terracing below, a part of the ground called the Paddock. Few changes were made until 1963 when the rear of the Paddock was seated and an overhanging roof was added. The stand is known for Leitch's highly distinctive 'criss-cross' balcony trusses which also act as handrails for the front row of seats in the upper section. Goodison Park is the only stadium with two complete trusses designed by Leitch. Of the 17 he created, only the ones at Ibrox, home of Rangers, at Fratton Park, home of Portsmouth, and at Goodison Park remain. Supporters in the upper Bullens Road Stand; an Everton fan chats to a steward outside a turnstile and fans buy a programme on Bullens Road. Some scouse humour on display on Bullens Road, a bent sign attempts to send away fans on a wild goose chase trying to find their entrance. A sticker of former Everton player Roger Kenyon on a girder, the seats in the lower Bullens Road Stand are screwed into wooden planks balanced on the old concrete terracing. Situated behind the goal at the north end is another Archibald Leitch designed double decker stand, originally opened in 1938. The lower tier is home to the club's most vociferous support. Known as the Street End or Popular End, the home side traditionally like to attack towards it in the second half of games. Home fans in the Gwladys Street end just before kick-off during the final Merseyside derby at Goodison Park, an internal stairway in the stand. The view from the odd seat in the lower Gwladys Street end could be better. Fans in the lower Gwladys Street end make the most of the May sunshine. A picture on a concourse at the Gwladys Street end, fans celebrate after Everton's first goal against Liverpool. St Luke's is a church in a very unique position, nestled in the corner between the Gwladys Street Stand and the Main Stand. In the past you could climb onto its roof and have a great free view of the action on the pitch. One year a very drunk fan somehow got up there and, while clinging on for dear life, accidentally knocked a crucifix off the parapet, and had to be taken down by firemen on a turntable ladder. Nowadays that view has been blocked off and St Luke's is more famous for its church hall where on matchdays the Everton FC Heritage Society puts on a huge display of memorabilia. Upstairs there are numerous stalls selling a treasure-trove of everything Everton-related. The blue painted sign for St Luke's Church and the 'Holy Trinity' statue outside St Luke's Church commemorating the famous Everton players Colin Harvey (facing), Howard Kendall and Alan Ball who helped the club to the 1969-70 league title. The Everton memorabilia sale upstairs in St Luke's Church (above) and Derek Temple, the former Everton and England forward, prepares to have photos with fans and a replica FA Cup. The decorated stairwell inside St Luke's Church, a display of images of Everton great Dixie Dean in St Luke's Church, and floral tributes next to the Dixie Dean statue at Goodison Park.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Everton fans celebrate in style to mark end of era at Goodison Park
The La's song There She Goes captured the mood perfectly, sparking a mass sing along before the second world war siren kicked in and Everton's men emerged to the sound of Z-Cars for one last time at Goodison Park. Then the PA system cut out and Z-Cars spluttered to a halt. Not now, please not now. A sign from the stadium gods? A little reminder that this iconic feature of English football is 133 years old and all the affection in the world can not hide the wrinkles? Perhaps, but it can still say goodbye in style. On a beautiful day in L4 4EL, under pale blue skies darkened by plumes of royal blue smoke from the flares outside, Everton delivered as its history demanded and departed with a win. Iliman Ndiaye danced through the Southampton defence twice and etched his name into Goodison folklore as the final goal scorer in the stadium's Premier League history. Related: 'Goodison Park has been part of saving my life': Everton fans mourn club's Mersey move Nottingham Forest's Horace Pike has the honour of scoring the first league goal here in 1892. Legends, glory, torment, passion, misery, the School of Science, Dogs of War and so much more have filled the years in-between. The history is inescapable and Everton – club, team and fans alike – staged the perfect send-off on a poignant and emotional afternoon. Ndiaye took the match-ball home after delivering victory for David Moyes's team. He didn't get a hat-trick but no one cared. It was some achievement by the Everton team to get inside the stadium and perform at all. The call to greet the team coach as it made its way along Walton Lane and Goodison Road was answered by tens of thousands of Evertonians. The area around Spellow Lane and Goodison Road, where the statue of Dixie Dean stands, was impassable by 9.30am. On the quieter Bullens Road and Gwladys Street, families stood outside their usual turnstiles to have their photographs taken. Outside 29 Gwladys Street, bedecked in Everton paraphernalia, the elderly owner sat in a deckchair and held court with passersby. A few doors along a brave neighbour had decorated their house in Liverpool flags. They were not sat outside to welcome visitors. Once around the corner at St Luke's Church, Goodison Road was gridlocked with fans waiting to welcome Moyes's men. It was so packed that the coach couldn't get through and had to make a detour to drop the players off in the Bullens Road car park. Hundreds of fans without tickets remained outside for the duration of Everton's 2-0 win. Everton scarfs had been draped over every seat and supporters made their way inside the ground as soon as the gates opened. Just like old times. Moyes broke away from his team's pre-match warm-up to hug Wayne Rooney as the boyhood Evertonian made his way around the pitch with his son. The Gwladys Street ran through its old songbook as Ndiaye ran amok through the Southampton defence. Alan Ball, Super Kevin Campbell, Duncan Ferguson and Tim Cahill all got a mention. From the current squad, Seamus Coleman and Jordan Pickford were serenaded frequently. Moyes had given Coleman the fitting honour of captaining Everton's men in their final appearance at Goodison. A lovely touch, although it backfired to a degree when the 36-year-old pulled up injured and had to be replaced in the 18th minute by the soon-to-be-released Ashley Young. After the final, final whistle there was a 15-minute delay while club staff put seats and stages in place for 'Operation Farewell Goodison'. It was a moment to reflect on what it has taken for Everton to get to a point where leaving its cherished home for a new stadium at Bramley-Moore dock is met with excitement more than regret. Everton's house move has been more complicated and stressful than most. There was the proposed relocation to a 60,000, £100m super-stadium at an unidentified location under Peter Johnson in the late 1990s. That one never got off the ground. Goodison's final game would have been staged 22 years ago had Everton made the transformative move to a prime waterfront site at King's Dock. Bill Kenwright's refusal to cede boardroom power to the former director Paul Gregg put pay to that scheme. Then came the awful plan to move to Kirkby as part of a giant Tesco retail development. 'A glorified cow shed built in a small town outside Liverpool,' as it was described at the time by the former Liverpool city council leader Warren Bradley. That cheap and unambitious project was rejected by the government after a public inquiry prompted by the Keep Everton In Our City campaign. The debt that present and future Evertonians, plus present and future owners, owe the KEIOC founders Dave Kelly, Colin Fitzpatrick, the late Tony Kelly and the late Anthony AJ Clarke among others is immeasurable. But that is the past. Everton's farewell to Goodison could have morphed into a sombre memorial but was pitched perfectly. Goodison would get one last rendition of Z-Cars after all. In the penalty area where Dean scored his record-breaking and still unmatched 60th league goal in 1928, a lone violinist played a heart-wrenching version of the club's adopted anthem. A series of goodbye tributes then appeared on the giant TV screens from Carlo Ancelotti, Sir Alex Ferguson, Thomas Tuchel, Mikel Arteta, Tim Howard and Roberto Martínez. There were also messages from Dame Judi Dench, an Everton fan and honorary patron of the club's charity, Jodie Comer, whose dad, Jimmy, had been the club's masseur for decades, and Sylvester Stallone. Related: Everton fans on the end of a Goodison era: 'I'll be thinking about my dad, my brothers, my son' Centre stage was eventually and rightly given to former players, many of whom are responsible for Goodison's greatest moments. Joe Royle, Bob Latchford and Johnny Morrissey led the first wave. The great 1980s team followed. The legendary goalkeeper Neville Southall looked resplendent in a floral shirt. Graeme Sharp, who stayed away for two years due to protests against the club's former board, was welcomed home with a fine reception. Peter Reid took to the mic and apologised for his dreadful sunglasses. 'I was on the lash last night,' he said. Next to him stood Andy Gray, who remarked: 'We are all leaving Goodison but Goodison will never leave us.' Bill Ryder-Jones, co-founder of The Coral, closed proceedings with a moving version of In My Life. 'There are places I remember, All my life.' Evertonians could not have loved Goodison more.
