See you goodison.
Goodison Park can boast many scoops in his 133-year history. It was the first specially built football stadium, the first with Dugouts and the first to heat underbeter.
The list continues … But when the players go to Southampton for the last time on the 'Grand Old Lady' of English football, they are not bricks and mortar or metal stanches that will see the rough emotion, it will be the people, the memories, the magical moments, the heart sore and the glory.
For a generation, the 'Goodison Experience' will mainly consist of relegation scratches and nail biting moments against Coventry, Crystal Palace and Bournemouth, with a few short meetings with European qualification thanks to the current teams of David Moyes at the time.
Every fan under the age of 30 has been left to dream one day what their older family members have.
And what a past! Goodison Park has witnessed eight of the nine league titles from Everton and the club remains fifth in the rankings of the top titles. Their first of nine was won in Anfield, from all places – the original home of the club.
Of the 60 goals of the legendary Dixie Dean in 1927/28 to the 'School of Science' sides of the 60s and that comprehensive team of the mid-80s, the stadium has seen it all: Kendall, Harvey and Ball, the 'Holy Trinity'; Sharp, gray and sheedy; Labone, Lawton and Young – the greats who have adorned the holy turf.
Every fan will have his favorite, his legend, the player who has captured his heart and made them in love with Everton and the matchday experience of this famous old stadium.
I have lived and inhaled many special moments in L4 as a fan, an employee of the club in the late 90s and for a short enchantment again in 2013/14, and also as a reporter for Sky Sports News. It will be memories of the relationships and the people I will take to the new Everton Stadium in Bramley-Moore Dock.
Moments such as those during the Coventry City match at the end of the 1997/98 season when after the survival of a ridiculous near Miss from a relegation battle, former midfielder Don Hutchison and I – then a press officer – discovered Everton's most successful manager of the floor in the floor in the floor, full of slans, full -woven, who was completely wandered, who was wandered in the floor, who was driven in the floor in the floor, full of slans, who was completely wandered in the floor in the floors, who was a driven kendalls, who was a driven kendalls who have been driven in the floor in the floor in the floor in the floor in a driven one in the floor in the floor in the floor that was completely driven in the floor. The pressure of that day had been on him.
And of course, the friendship that I shared with the late and beautiful Kevin Campbell, remembered how his incredible personality caused a dressing room that was in trouble when he arrived on loan in 1999, only for him to save the season with his goals.
So many great friendships, so many wonderful moments good and bad, but it is my time as a young fan in the 70s that I miss so much.
On Saturday afternoon he was in the corner of Gwladys Street in the corner of Gwladys Street and sang the song of the Sun Shining and Neil Diamond from the PA System stage.
Even today, 50 years later, I can remember the scents, the sounds and a 12-year-old I remember all the ailments on my sides scarf with nerves, hoping, desperately praying for a victory for my beloved blues.
I look back and remember so many personal moments: walking over the Goodison field with former manager Walter Smith, another who left us far too early and discussed how we would discuss media planning that day, and the privilege of introducing club legends such as Alan Ball and Colin Harvey on the field. I have been so happy.
These are the personal feelings that will undoubtedly all come to the surface when the last whistle blows on May 18. Every Evertonian in that stadium will have their thoughts, their memories of special times and those they like to keep playing in the Royal Blue shirt.
For the hundred or so former players who invited Everton for the game, those memories will of course be strengthened. For them, the moment will be extra special, extra emotional.
The will of Peter Reid, a local boy who lived his dream in Goodison Park, Neville Southall, the most covered player of the club – a cent for his thoughts over the day. And for Joe Royle, who has experienced Goodison as a player and manager, there will be tears – there is no doubt about that.
“It will be difficult, I can't even imagine it,” he says. “My director at school sent me to Goodison to see the manager to get some tickets, so I got an early taste of it. The crowd was great.
“Goodison Park in the winter was a very, very cold place for opposition teams and it was a big spring in our cap to take competitions. I will miss it very much.”
And of course there will be many opposing managers, players and fans who will look from far away who will take a moment to remember their own experiences of the stadium, such as former Arsenal manager Arsene Wener -whose memories of leaving Highbury for the emirates were caused by the idea of ​​Goodison -closing.
“When I see that, it makes me think about the disappearance of Highbury, it is another soul of English football that disappears,” says Wenger.
“Of course I understand that the evolution is – I have pushed my club to build the emirates – but it is also sad because part of our history is going.
“Everton was a very intimidating land. When we (Arsenal) built the new site, the same atmosphere was impossible to recreate – the fact that you could shake hands with the fans if you took a corner is no longer there, and we all miss that.”
Goodison Park is demonstrably the last bastion of the old English football stadia, the last of its kind to go, the Toffee Lady, Z Cars, the world cup qualifications from 1966, a boxing fight in boxing world championship with Evertonian Tony Bellew, and even a recording of songs of Lof in the field with another blue Game.
Everton gives fans the opportunity to buy the chair where they are in the stadium – some for many, many years – as soon as the last game has been played, but although these Dewense of course will have fans they buy, a tangible memory of their 'stadium experience', it will be the indisputable emotional impact that will remain. Forever Everton, Forever Goodison Park.