Key events
“The best place in the world with the best people in the world,” says Peter Reid. “I’m a bit emotional if I’m honest … I have had a shandy,” he continues, talking about the camaraderie and heart. He’s one of a phalanx of legends walking around the pitch, but he can’t leave the mic alone – what a lovely man he seems.
The streets around Goodison are rammed. I guess the docks will be nice too, but theuy’ll never be is heimish.
Also going on:
Which is the greatest Goodison goal? This has got to be up there.
Southampton news:
Please do send in your Goodison memories; I’ll start you with one of my dad’s. He went with a Man City-supporting mate to watch the 1969 FA Cup quarter-final, they went in the home end, he noted that Everton weren’t much use, and was threatened with knife was his trouble. He kept his opinions to himself thereafter.
Southampton, meanwhile, bring in Nathan Wood for Jan Bednarek, who’s not in the squad, while Joe Aribo replaces Lesley Ugochukwu.
It’s so fitting David Moyes is managing Everton today, and manages to get Seamus Coleman in for a first start since Boxing Day. He’ll captain the side – another lovely aspect of proceedings – and replaces Ashley Young. Otherwise, Dwight McNeil, Iliman Ndiaye and Jake O’Brien are in for Jack Harrison, Carlos Alcaraz and Michael Keane.
I’ll write these down, then we’ll chat about what they mean the great Goodison.
Let’s have some teams…
Everton (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Coleman, O’Brien, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Gueye, Garner; McNeill, Doucoure, Ndiaye; Beto. Subs: Virginia, Patterson, Keane, Calvert-Lewin, Harrison, Chermiti, Young, Alcaraz, Iroegbunam.
Southampton (3-4-2-1): Ramsdale; Harwood-Bellis, Wood, Stephens; Bree, Downes, Aribo, Welington; Fernandes, Dibling; Sulemana. Subs: McCarthy, Manning, Sugawara, Kayi Sanda, Ugochukwu, Smallbone, Robinson, Archer, Stewart.
Preamble
Oh man, what a day this is. Oh man.
It’s easy, especially as we get older, to idealise things which remind us of our youth; perhaps the world’s greatest coincidence is that the greatest music ever recorded came when each and every one of us was aged 12-21. And nothing does nostalgia like football does nostalgia, capturing our family, our friends, our heritage and our home, a sensory overload set to the inexorable march of life: it could not reminds us of ourselves more.
Goodison Park is, without any doubt whatsoever, one of the world’s great football grounds. Local, loud and a personality in its own right, it reminds all who visit that going the game is not about sightlines and sarnies, but proximity and intensity, the stands as much part of the action as the pitch.
Time and money, though, cannot be denied; it was inevitable that this day would come. And though the experience of it will be a lot – I can’t imagine how many will be feeling the presence of those close to them but no longer around, or reliving times at which Goodison was there to support them when they needed it the most – football is about feeling things, about experiencing and embracing a version of ourselves that is unique to it.
So this week’s news – that Goodison will no longer be knocked down, instead serving as the country’s largest women’s ground – is perfect, the past deployed as a key to the future. It’s going to be emotional.
Kick-off: 12pm BST
