Hello and how are you?
Saturday 5th of April sees the Mighty Cannon take the long and winding road up to Merseyside for a lunch-time clash against 15th -placed Everton FC. Kick off at Goodison is at 12.30pm western European time.
Well, this is our final trip to Goodison, a stadium (mostly) built/shaped by our old and reoccurring chum, Archibald Leitch. After this season Everton will be relocating at their brand-spanking new Everton stadium (eighth largest in Britain) down at Bramley Dock on the riverside in Liverpool. It’s been pretty interesting to watch how its been constructed as an Everton fan with a drone has been giving us a peak into the workings of it all during the last four years.
Of course Goodison existed before the Leitch design and there were several uncovered as well as a covered stand. Celtic park was inaugurated on the same day as Goodison although the site itself was grounded way back in 1892
By 1895 Goodison was being further developed, with various architects involved and our Mr Leitch turns up to add his touch sometime during 1909, and from then on all sorts of new stands were built using special types of trusses that now only exist at Goodison, Ibrox and Fratton Park. I wonder if some kind of museum might ask for when the demolition of Goodison occurs?
Goodison was bombed (like Highbury) during the second war but was easily renovated and floodlights were installed in 1957, followed by undersoil heating (like we also had a Highbury) in 1958. The Goodison road stand was partly demolished and renovated with some criticism in the early 70’s. Of course following the Taylor report after Hillsborough, the ground was renovated again to accommodate seating, and the Park end stand was demolished and rebuilt in the middle of the 1990s.
Goodison is oddly unique in that a church ( St Lukes) protrudes into the ground only yards from the corner flag and Everton don’t play matches on Sunday morning out of respect for those worshiping.
As a kid I quite liked Goodison, when the away fans were still behind the goal and not shoved in the corner so the cameras couldn’t see them as it seems now. The Merseyside derbies seemed quite a big deal and of course I always rooted for Everton. Goodison was also important as it often hosted the FAC semi-finals/semi-final replays in the days before the New Wembley began to play the semis, which in my opinion seemed to take away from the romance of ‘getting to Wembley’ as an Endstation. This last semi to played at Everton was back in 1985.
In 1894 they did host a FAC final and FAC final replay in 1910. Later, many games in the 1966 world cup finals would be played at Goodison, including a semi and also many old home championship matches. Remember them ye of the long beard?
Everton have apparently staged more top flight matches than any other club, and have played there (with exception of for four seasons)
for one hundred and twenty-two seasons. It also held various military maneuvers pre-WW1 observed by the King George V and many rugby matches were played out as well a big- bout boxing (also as part of the Rocky film Creed) whilst also witnessing a baseball game between the White Sox and the Yankees.
Our first game at Everton was way back in 1905. All games inclusive its 225 played against Everton. So its roughly 112 games at Goodison. It amazing if you think back over those years and all those players, many forgotten except as treasured family photographs, players came into focus as you started to support and follow football and go out of focus as times and line-ups change.
Probably, altogether about 4,000 games have been played at that ground. From the first game against Bolton in 1892 to the last versus Southampton this coming May 2025. From Dixie Dean, to Andy King to Geoff Nulty to Adrian Heath and Peter Reid to Calvert-Lewin and Mr.Pickford. Adieu Goodison, thank you for all the memories!
Our chums at Statto HQ (at the time of writing) have given the Mighty Cannon a 55.6% chance of winning and the Toffees only 17.6%. So I hope we say a final goodbye to the grand old lady of Walton Park by giving Saka rest for the Real game and hitting them for five.
Take of yourselves.
Mills
Positively Arsenal 
twenty minutes in were playing well COYG.
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Cant believe we didn’t win that game a mixture of missed chances and PIGMOL again.
After a whole season of not going for it the subs today were at least positive but actually disrupted the team.
A really strange day all round. On to the other fix of having to play Madrid at home in the first leg.
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Feel the same Ian at one -nil up I thought that we would go on and do it.
I’d rather be playing Real at theirs first. It weird I can see us beating them 2-0 then getting thrashed in the second leg. But then I can see us getting thrashed in both games, yet we are so weird we might win the first leg so easily that the 2nd leg is irrelevant. Oh brother! Liverpool beat Everton 1-0 and we draw 1-1 and that seems the difference between us and Lpool this season? We became the King of Draws…
Today was the most quiet the blogs ever been in its entire history. Ghost Theory will be around to investigate soon, at least they will make us laugh!
COYG!
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another draw, that is 11 in 31 games, its what has cost us a tilt at the title. Arteta 5 years in still hasn’t a clue what to do when we are heading for a draw.
Serious question, was that a penalty, would you have been furious if it was other way round and AFC didn’t get it, or would you say no penalty.
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seeing as this was our last ever game at Goodison Park some memories of AFC games at that ground, am I mistaken or didn’t Kevin Campbell make his debut there on the last game of a season.
I remember the Everton fans giving AFC a standing ovation and proclaiming them as the best team in the land, in one of George Graham’s title winning seasons, think we won 3-0 or 3-1, Perry Groves I seem to remember scoring one of the goals.
Think we won there in the league cup semi final was it.
Seem to remember Kenny Sansom scoring an OG there on his FA Cup debut for us in 1981
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yeah Ed, it was Perry who scored in the semis of the Littlewoods cup. It was one of the many occasions I’ve visited Goodison and it’s a proper old English stadium and another being put to bed in the annals of history.
As great as all these new stadia are none have the character of the ones they replace. They are all designed for commercial reasons rather than football reasons.
It is another negative that the Premier league has brought us.
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As far as the penalty goes, the Everton players didn’t appeal at first and in fact they still had the ball and was carrying on the attack. It was pure PIGMOL at their best.
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PGMOL has assisted Liverpool all season, the calls we have been getting against us have been going for Liverpool all season.
That call was a joke, the Everton player pulls Lewis-Skelly down, falls over after and we get a penalty against us.
Taking it on the chin has not worked it has got much worse, may as well make a meal out of all their dodgy calls so they get highlighted more.
Another example of PGMOL bias, ineptness and corruption.
How many years has this been going on ? they take intelligent people for fools by saying that they are just bad at their jobs, this happens to often to be brushed under the rug.
the amount of times an Everton player tried to stop Raya from making quick plays and not getting booked for blocking the keepers kick or throw from corners was annoying.
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VVD got away with another elbow to the head of an opponent today, and LFC got away with 2 clear penalties against them, PGMOL called the most clear of the 2 “a coming together”, its laughable, they have bent over backwards this season, especially after the David Coote revelations,
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7 games to go in the EPL and Liverpool need only a maximum of 11 points to win the title
Arsenal need a maximum of 13 points to secure top 4 and CL football again next season, there is a good chance top 5 in the EPL will get CL football next season
Southampton with their loss today are relegated, the earliest relegation in EPL history and they are still on course for the lowest points ever for a team in an EPL season. Ramsdale relegated again, think that is third time, and the rumor is that Bournemouth are lining him up for a summer move
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we are certain to finish this season on lower points than either of the last 2 seasons, and we need 8 points to better three seasons ago
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Arsenal have drawn 11 games so far this EPL season, that matches the amount of draws from the last 2 seasons, 5 last season, 6 the season before.
we have failed to win 14 EPL games so far, it was 10 last season and 12 the season before.
This PR ocess is not going as planned
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can anyone think of one var /ref incident/mistake that has cost Liverpool this season?
guess who leads the table for most penalties “won”
This season stinks like the one where Jaime Vardy dived his way to the title with all the refs in England obliging Leicester to the title.
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Declan sent off for Rollin the ball 2 yards
Trossard sent off for attempting to make a pass 500th of a second after the ref blew whistle,
Lewis skelly sent of for stopping a counter,
Lewis skelly penalised for foul against him
Saliba gets a penalty given against him and replays show he won the ball
thats off the top of my head, sure there is more.
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The Rice incident was the one for me that corruption was evident. Either corruption at the time or incompetence backed up by corruption.
If you view the full incident it is clear
1 The ball had already been kicked before Rice touched it.
2 The player was intentionally trying to hit Rice with the ball and the follow through.
3 Even if the player hadn’t already touched the ball the follow through was dangerous (like the one in the Merseyside derby)
Dean, Gallagher and the pigs head all tried to justify the incident with a shortened clip not showing the original touch. This was obviously completely the opposite of what he said to defend Oliver’s actions in the game against city the previous season, a game that had we won we would have theoretically won the league.
We all know the thousand of incidents since the Trossard red that the officials have ignored. In fact as already pointed out their was only one booking in the Everton game for the many obstructions on Raya. Ironically the booking didn’t happen the last time Everton players done this but in the middle so the ref acknowledged it was a booking worthy incident but just ignored it. The fact that it happened so many times and by so many different players means this was a tactic put in place by the Everton coaching staff.
Historically ARSENAL have suffered from tactical and rotation fowling for decades. The fact PIGMOL allows this to continue after all this time is clear they are complicit and underlines their corruption.
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New post is up.
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