The Final Merseyside Derby Under The Lights At Goodison Park...

After 133 years it's time to say goodbye to a piece of history!

Hello and welcome back to The Overlap Newsletter! The FA Cup is back tonight as the fourth round gets underway. Manchester United face Leicester City in what will be the fourth meeting between the two sides in the competition. Ruud van Nistelrooy is set to return to Old Trafford for the first time since his stint as caretaker manager in November. After a quarter-final exit from the Carabao Cup and finding themselves in the bottom half of the Premier League table, The Red Devils’s only hope of silverware this season remains with the Europa League or FA Cup. In comparison, Leicester sit in the relegation zone having won just one in four games since their FA Cup victory over QPR in an eight goal thriller. Who will secure a place in the last sixteen? Catch the latest episode of Stick To Football on The Overlap Youtube Channel as Gary Neville, Roy Keane, Jill Scott, Ian Wright, and Wayne Rooney are joined by England rugby legend and World Cup winner Lawrence Dallaglio. Listen to the latest episode of It Was What It Was by following the link below as Jonathan Wilson and Rob Draper are joined by former Manchester United captain Gary Neville to look back on one of the most momentous and tragic events in football history: The Munich air disaster of 1958:

Quiz Question…

Who was the first manager from overseas to win the FA Cup?

Answer to follow at the end of the Newsletter…

Stick To Football Behind The Scenes: Lawrence Dallaglio

TAKE ANOTHER LITTLE PIECE OF MY HEART: FAREWELL TO THE GOODISON, THE GREATEST

By Rob Draper, co-host It Was What It Was

It’s hard to imagine that there are Arsenal fans in their 20s who have never experienced the glory of a home game at the beautiful Art Deco Highbury. That never stood on the North Bank to watch Thierry Henry weave his way past defenders, or Ian Wright, Charlie Nicholas or Charlie George tantalise fans with wondrous feats to match the architecture.

The marble halls where directors met were like a palatial gentleman’s club, literally. Famously in 1989, director David Dein’s wife, Barbara, had to get a message into the inner sanctum to fetch her husband out to the cocktail lounge to meet an interesting young French coach she was chatting to and whom she thought David might want to get to know. His name was Arsene something or other.

As well as Highbury, we have lost others on the way: The Dell, with its bizarre two-tiered terracing; Maine Road, with the grand sweep of the Kippax running the length of the pitch rather than behind the goal; Upton Park, with the infamous Chicken Run, another terrace along the touch line, which only very brave opposition players approached; Griffin Park, with its pubs on all four corners and White Hart Lane, with its classic stands designed by Archibald Leitch, English football’s most-famous and iconic architect; Roker Park and its famous roar. All these have gone the way of the bulldozers.

And so to Goodison Park on Wednesday night and the last Merseyside derby in what may be the finest ground of its era in English football. Perhaps only Villa Park comes close. There’s something about Goodison, which also bears Leitch’s signature handiwork - that criss-cross pattern on the balcony of the Bullens Road Stand, a throwback to another century, to a time when Dixie Dean scored his 60th goal of the season – which is still a record - in the 3-3 draw against Arsenal in 1928 as Everton secured the league title, their third at that time in their history. Two more would follow in the 1930s, then another two in 1963 and 1970 before the Howard Kendall team of the 1980s won their last two.

Everton fans of my generation will probably recall the 3-1 win over Bayern Munich in the 1985 Cup-Winners’ Cup as the greatest ever moment of grand old Goodison. Was there a better team in Europe at the time? It was an era when only one team qualified for the European Cup and Liverpool, defending European champions, made the final that year. Everton were better than them, winning the league. They overwhelmed Bayern that night, Graeme Sharp, Andy Gray and Trevor Steven scoring in the 3-1 win. They would go on to win the Cup-Winners’ Cup as well as the league but be denied their chance of the European Cup, for which they would have certainly challenged, because of the ban on English clubs after the Heysel disaster, which is still such a source of contention for Evertonians.

In terms of derbies, the 4-4 draw in 1991 would be hard to match. Four times Everton were behind, four times they came back in the FA Cup fifth round tie. “Match of a lifetime” they dubbed it in The Liverpool Echo. It was also the match that convinced Kenny Dalglish to quit Liverpool, which precipitated a long-term decline at the club.

But it isn’t just Everton fans who will mourn the passing of Goodison. Women's football is also losing a sacred ground. It is at Goodison where 53,000 watched Preston works team Dick, Kerr Ladies play St Helens’ Ladies in 1920, a crowd bigger than either Everton or Liverpool attracted that weekend and a level of mania which prompted the FA to ban women’s football a year later.

Across the globe, Goodison, with its distinctive, semi-circular terracing behind the goals, is recognised as the venue where Portugal and the great Eusebio got the better of Pelé (or kicked him out of the game, depending on your POV) winning 3-1 in the 1966 World Cup and where North Korea thrilled the world in a 5-3 defeat to Portugal in the same tournament.

In recent years there have been relegation thrillers that have brought the Goodison of old back to life: the 3-2 win over Wimbledon in 1994,mimicked by Frank Lampard’s 2022 team winning by the same score against Crystal Palace, both times the Blues having been two goals down and heading out of the top-flight for the first time since 1954.

Then there was “Remember the name: Wayne Rooney!” moment, the 16 year old stunning Arsene Wenger's Arsenal and David Seaman with a extraordinary 30 yard effort to score his first ever Premier League goal. A personal favourite was Jack Rodwell’s last-minute goal in a 3-1 win over a Manchester United side in their 2010 pomp. The fact Rodwell was one of their own perhaps added to the giddy euphoria, but the combination of the Goodison frenzy and the chaotic clamour of celebration was like nothing else experienced in English football.

The world’s smallest violin will be playing when I tell you that the media facilities - cramped, boxed in, my knees jutting into a colleague in front - were among the worst. And yet the experience was always amongst the best: from the walk to the ground, the welcome of the stewards and guttural roar of the crowd. The Z Cars theme and a crisp Saturday afternoon at Goodison will always evoke something special. I will go to my grave swearing that there is no better ground in England.

So we are losing a little part of football's soul this week. There are just a couple more months to enjoy this relic from another age for, of course, the move to Bramley Moore Dock is exhilarating and utterly unnecessary. It is good to hear those Leitch-inspired criss-crosses are to be incorporated into the brickwork on the new stadium. Hopefully this is symbolic, a sign that new owner Dan Freidkin, an American entrepreneur very much in the mould of the 21st century Premier League, will be respectful of the heritage he has inherited. With David Moyes back at the club, goals being scored and the relegation zone disappearing in the rear-view mirror, these are exciting rather than mournful times at the club. And yet do not begrudge anyone a slight tear in their eye on Wednesday. We won’t have Goodison much longer. But we'll always have the memories. They can’t bulldoze those.

Quiz Answer:

Ruud Gullit