Goodison Park - the First Season

1892 - 93

The summer of 1892 was to be a worry to Mr. Mahon and a gamble by himself and the remainder of the committee that had joined him in leaving Anfield. Firstly there was the issue of how to raise the funds required to build the new ground and secondly to complete the building work in time for the next season. Mere Green field was acquired thanks to a mortgage of £8,090 (which was paid in full during the 1904-05 season) and the amount needed to turn what was no more than a wilderness into a ground capable of staging top class football, was in the region of £4,000. The money was raised with the help of an interest free loan of £1,000 from Dr. Baxter and through the issuing of £2,500 worth £1 shares.

Work was started on 7 th June 1892 and firstly the area had to be cleared, drainage laid, leveled and then re-turfed, this was completed by a Mr. Barton at a cost of £550. Local builders, Kelly Brothers form Walton, were instructed to complete the remainder of the work and have the ground ready for the beginning of the 1892-93 season. Unbelievably the new ground, consisting of two uncovered stands each accommodating 4,000 and a covered stand for 3,000, was completed on time.

A board of directors had now replaced the committee in the running Everton’s affairs and it was fitting the George Mahon should be elected the club’s first chairman. One of the first decisions by the new board was the renaming of the ground to Goodison Park. Everton’s new home was opened on 24th August 1892 by FA officials Lord Kinnaird and Frederick Wall, despite the capacity of the ground being 11,000 it was reported that in the region of 12,000 people turned out to witness the occasion. The first game took place nine days after the opening with Bolton Wanderers accepting an invitation to play a friendly at the new ground, George Mahon kicked off the game and Everton got off to a winning start at their new home with a 4-2 victory.

The first league game at Goodison Park took place on 3rd September 1892 with Nottingham Forest supplying the opposition, Everton’s line up for the match was:

Jardine, Howarth, Dewar, Boyle, Holt, Robertson, Latta, Maxwell, Geary, Chadwick and Millward.

The game inself ended in a 2-2 draw with the honour of scoring the first competitive goal at Goodison going to Forest’s Horace Pike, with the first Everton goal coming from, inevitably, Fred Geary. The team’s first league victory at their new ground came in the next home game when they crushed Newton Heath, later to become Manchester united, 6-0.

Everton’s form was patchy until mid January 1893 when a 1-0 home victory over West Bromwich Albion started a sequence of 14 unbeaten games which consisted of eight straight league wins and would see the team finish in a respectable third place behind champions Sunderland and runners-up Preston North End. The season saw Everton record their highest total of league goals, 74, Fred Geary was again the side's top scores with 19 but he was pushed all the way by Alex Latta who scored 18. On 11 th February 1893 the team recorded an extremely impressive 6-0 victory over Preston at Goodison Park and the game was witnessed by a record 30,000, paying £736 for the privilege, and this went a long way of ensuring the club’s future.

The outstanding end of season form was to see the club reach their first ever FA Cup final. After West Bromwich Albion, Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday were all easily defeated at Goodison, Preston North End were finally overcome at the third attempt in the semi final when Everton won 2-1 at Nottingham. The opponents in the final were Wolverhampton Wanderers, and the Merseyside’s went into the game as huge favourites, having beaten Wolves twice in the league. The second of these games was played at Wolves and Everton ran out 4-2 winners despite fielding eight reserves.

The FA Cup final was played at the Manchester Athletic Club’s ground at Fallowfield and was the first time the final had been staged away from London, other than for replays. The reason for the move was due to the poor state of the pitch at Kennington Oval which had also been responsible for the move of the International between England and Scotland. An unexpected crowd in the region of 50,000, paying £2,559, turned up to watch the game and were seen queuing at the gates four hours before the 3.30 kick off. The team that represented Everton in the final comprised of:

Williams, Howarth, Kelso, Stewart, Holt, Boyle, Latta, Gordon, Maxwell, Chadwick, Milward.

However, despite fielding a strong side it was not to be Everton’s day, firstly they had a goal disallowed and then lost the game to what could only be described as a fluke. A long, high kick by the Wolves centre back, Harry Allen, was lost in brilliant sunshine by the Everton goalkeeper and the ball landed next to him and bounced into the net.

The first year at Goodison Park had ended in disappointment on the playing front with the loss in the FA Cup final but off the field the move to their new home had seen the club amass £8,815 19s in gate receipts and this allowed the team to be strengthened during the summer months. Dumbarton’s highly rated winger, John Bell, was recruited and he was joined by Jack Southworth, arguably the biggest star in the game at the time. Southworth, who was signed for a sum of £400 from Blackburn, was already an established England international and soon became a great favourite with the Everton supporters.