It’s back to Saturday afternoon football, as we head to Everton for a 3pm kick-off. As the crow flies Goodison Park is about two and a half miles north-east from Liverpool city centre.

By car the best bet is to come off the M62 onto the M57 at junction 6, then head north to junction 4 of that motorway. Then take the A580 towards Liverpool and keep on this road for another three miles till you get the Walton Lifestyles Sports Centre (L4 9XP) where you can park for £7. It is then a 15 minute walk to Goodison, and you will be well placed for a quick getaway after the match.

If you can’t raise the energy to walk that far there is the Stanley Park car park in priory road at a cost of £10, otherwise it’s good old fashioned street parking. But there is the inevitable Residents Only Parking Scheme in operation around the nearby area, and there is always the nuisance of the local brats offering to ‘watch’ your car for a couple of quid.

It’s over three miles from the main Liverpool Lime Street station, but there is a station just over a mile away at Kirkdale. To get there you can catch a Merseyrail train to Liverpool Central and then change onto a Northern Line service towards either Ormskirk or Kirkby. Or you could catch the 919 Special bus from Stand 10 in St John’s Lane. This is just across the road from Lime Street station and down the left hand side of St George’s Hall.

Another option is to go to Sandhills, which is also served by trains heading for Southport, which might be the most windswept station in the country but does have the ‘Soccerbus’ running to the stadium. If you’re going this way you can ask for a ticket to Goodison Park from Lime Street, as this cheaper than buying the train and bus tickets separately.

There aren’t too many pubs close to the stadium which admit away fans, but you can usually get into the Wetherspoons on Walton Road called the ‘Thomas Frost’. Another option is the Arkles pub on the side of Stanley Park, which is the usual away fans pub for Liverpool games. There are plenty of pubs in the city centre, one of the best being the CAMRA ‘Head of Steam’ on Lime Street station.

Also recommended is the Vines next to the Adelphi Hotel, which is handy for catching the train onwards from Liverpool Central. And at the stadium itself is an outdoor fan zone behind the Park Stand, which serves alcohol, as well as food. Though grub-wise you’d probably get better get better value for money from one of the many takeaways close to Goodison.

There might also be a bit of pre-match entertainment, as the Everton fans are staging a march to protest at the running of the club, which will finish behind the main stand in Goodison Road. There has been plenty of discussion on their fan forums about whether demonstrations on a match day will distract their players, so if you hear any ‘sack the board’ chants during the game make sure you join in.

Before the demands of the Taylor Report enforced redevelopment on football clubs throughout the country, away supporters used to get the upper and lower stands at the Park Lane end. But when this was replaced by a new stand in 1994 it was naturally deemed to be much too good for away fans, so we were shunted off to a corner of the Bullens Road Stand.

Here there are several pillars blocking the view, and in the seats at the back it’s even worse due to the low roof. The concourse gets very cramped, the seating is wooden, and you won’t be surprised to know that this stand dates back to 1926. Alcohol is usually available, but don’t be late as they stop serving 15 minutes before kick-off.

Our allocation is 2,803, in both the upper and lower tiers, out of a current stadium capacity of 39,572. Inevitably we sold all our tickets as soon as they went on sale, and thanks to Premier League rules they cost £30 for adults with concessions at £25 and £20. We are warned that “the allocation includes a small number of obstructed views”, but at least the affected seats are a very generous £1 cheaper.

The tickets for all the home stands have also sold out, such is the excitement generated by this key battle to stay out of the bottom three. But it might be worth a cheeky email to ask if you can have one of the spare seats in their directors box, now that their board members are too scared to turn up.

At least we’re not alone in having our view of the action partially blocked by supporting pillars, as this problem also affects the three tier main stand, which is the second newest part of the stadium, having been built in 1971. Goodison has plenty of tradition, but it’s showing it’s age and it’s cramped location have restricted any opportunities for expansion.

So the club are in the process of building a new stadium on the waterfront at the former Bramley Moore dock, at a cost of around £500m. It will have an initial capacity of 52,000, but there will be room to expand this to 62,000 and the lower tiers will be constructed for easy conversion for standing if this allowed in the future. They hope it will be ready by the start of the 2024/5 season, which will be something to look forward to if we’re both still in the Premier League by then.

Some of this stuff came from www.footballgroundguide.com .

Reuters

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