Dave Parker steps outside the front door of his house on the corner of Gwladys Street and looks to the right to take the Holy Trinity statue.
Three from Everton's best, Howard Kendall, Colin Harvey and Alan Ball, are beautiful, bathing in April Sunshine.
Dave looks to the left to see the portrait of Kendall decorated in the stands that now bears his name, the nearest Tourniquet only 70 passes away from the house where this fan lives in for 34 years.
“I get a shiver over my back, just thinking that this is all coming to an end,” he says, after he has invited me for a cup of tea.
'I enjoyed every second here. It is the matchday atmosphere, it is electric. '
While Everton is preparing to bring the curtain into this famous old stadium at 133 years, Dave and thousands of colleagues can be forgiven for the strange melancholic moment. There will be more on Saturday, because Goodison Park is organizing the Champions of England for the last time.
“I have founders on the front wall, every game,” he says. “A lady, her husband and son. They bring butties, chips and we will always make them a cup of tea. And there are two boys who come from Dublin, they bring me a bottle of whiskey. I will probably not see them after this. '
True to the blue half of the city, five generations in the Parker family, far from unusual among Evertonians, comprises.
“My first game was with my father in 1965 against Arsenal, a 1-0 win,” he says. 'I went to Wembley for the FA Cup final the following year, and during the World Cup we came to Goodison during the World Cup to record the atmosphere. Pele and Eusebio both played here. Eusebio said it was his favorite soil ever.
'You can hear everything in the house. The night games are great. A few years ago, when my grandson Thomas was about 18 months old, he was outside with my daughter and the fans would come by and disturb his hair and then touch my flag for happiness.
'At the end of the game, the street was teeming, everyone sang' Everton, Everton '. My wife held the baby up in the window and they all got angry and cheered him. It is such funny things that you remember. And the police horses they knocked against my window. I would give them a polo mint and a bucket of water. '
On the other side of the land, which is at the Dixie Dean statue, has to share a different local stories. Dave Fehily is known in these parts after a cameo in the film Howard's Way, who maps the success in Kendall's first saying that was in charge.
The film opens with the young Fehily who walks to the nearest telephone box in December 1971 to demand an answer from title winning manager Harry Catterick about why Everton had sold world cup winner Alan Ball to Arsenal.
“My Everton trip started here, on the Bumens Road,” he says, walking around the perimeter of the stadium. “My father, my grandfather and when he died, my Nan kept the season card and it's still in the family. These doors, 53 and 54, that was our entrance. My first game was against Tranmere in 1968, Fa Cup fifth round. Joe Royle scored the first and Johnny Morrissey got the second.
'We filmed Colin Harvey for Howard's Way on this corner, Bums Road and Gwladys Street, and he told me that his uncle lived on the street behind here and he and his mother stayed there when his father was gone. He and his grandfather used to come to the end of Gwladys Street.
“I am absolutely deeply sad to leave here, I feel that I am leaving a family member.”
A little further, St Luke's Church, nestled in the corner between the Gwladys Street and Main Stand, who opened its doors for worship in 1901 and will continue to offer a weekly service, Sunday at 11 am, after Everton continued.
A strong connection with the club was inevitable, with the church hall a matchday harbor and the roof that offered a precarious lookout point for fearless fans before a large screen spoiled the unobstructed view.
“If I had a pound for every time a fan told me he had been on our roof, we would have a fortune,” the deceased rector and passionate blue, Harry Ross, once explained. “But it was a good place, closer to my God for you.”
The sitting, Lynn Davidson, was chairman of the former striker Kevin Campbell's memorial service last September and is aware of the power of feeling among fans about the move.
“It is something we as a church have to think about,” she says the Clubkapelaan, Pastor Henry Corbett, in an Everton Heritage Society film. “We have the responsibility to help ensure the local community, because this becomes a major problem for people when Everton moves.”
Pastor Henry has been the chaplain of the club since 1985, when manager Kendall told him: “My players have problems, but they will not always come to me because I choose the team.” Since then he has been there, preaching the marriage of Duncan Ferguson in the Anglican cathedral of Liverpool, who had previously visited the Scottish striker during his short Stint in the Barlinnie prison.
His pastoral care has been expanded to the oldest youth club in the city on the road by Everton Brow. Shrewsbury House, known locally as the Shewsy, was founded in 1903 and was a charity close to the heart of the legendary tennis correspondent of Mail Sport, Mike Dickson. They share a site with St. Peter's Church, Everton's opponents in the very first match of the club, December 20, 1879, a 6-0 win for Everton in Stanley Park.
Here we meet Adam Byrne, a blue, and Joseph Rooney, a red despite the name. Both were present as now volunteering in the center. It is the night after the Anfield Derby, a 1-0 victory for Liverpool, and the Scherts is sharp, just like football at their five-a-side pitch.
“I started coming here when I was about 13,” says Adam. “That is about 30 years. I was just very happy to come here. A place where you felt safe, where you are listened to.
“This is one of the poorest departments in the country, so it can struggle economically, but it is very rich in other ways, in community values ​​and looking forward to each other.”
Everton and England -attacker Toni Duggan came through the assistant manager of Ferguson and Everton, Alan Irvine, the Youngsters and Everton in the community also played their role and also helped with tickets for competitions.
This is an age group that looks at the future, as Alfie, a bustling 17-year-old keeper says: 'Goodison has memories, such as the Tarkowski goal in the Derby this season, at Palace and Bournemouth.
“Incredible scenes. But the new land … I can't wait. You can see it on the hill from here. It looks great. '
Adam takes me to see it myself. We walk past the Tower of Prince Rupert, the Georgian 'Lock-up' represented on the Everton-Badge and the site of the original Toffee store that gave the club its nickname, at the highest point in the city. There in the distance, his place in a view that includes both cathedrals and the liver building, is the Everton Stadium in Bramley-Moore Dock, £ 800 million masterpiece by architect Dan Meis.
“I come from the family of a docker,” says Adam proudly. “They worked there. My grandfather worked very dock. It is a nice connection for me. '
MatchDay is a party for the senses, more than ever this season as fans say goodbye. There is a unique feeling, the arteries of tight residential streets that lead to three sides off the ground, causing the Blue Hores to walk, many families just walk out of their front doors to view their team.
Here the residents can smell the hamburgers, the chips and fried onions and hear the chatter and the songs before they leave the house. Children still play football on the street for the game.
It is a sunny Grand National Weekend for the last visit of Arsenal, the Goodison Cafe has already closed the shop, but queues form at the popular food bus at the entrance of Goodison Road. The boss, Tony Murray, is reflective and says: 'The first game we opened against Newcastle in 1988 and Tony Cotte scored a hat trick, we won 4-0. But I come as a fan for 60 years. I have photos of my father with Dixie Dean, my brother was the mascot when Everton won the competition in 1963. “
Tony is still waiting to hear if he gets a pitch for his company at Bramley-Moore Dock.
Dave Bond, the licensee and general director of the Winslow is also confronted with uncertainty. The Pub, a real sanctuary for the team, only opens on competition days and for private functions and serves, he thinks, 'about 4,000 pints' when Everton plays across the road. I enjoyed a few, often brushing shoulders with former players among the crowds. “Peter Reid and Kevin Sheedy were the other day,” says Dave. “Reidy got up and sang, we won't be moved. That's Reidy! '
Royle was called from the main standard in the night of his first game as Boss, a 2-0 victory over Liverpool in November 1994. He bought a round in front of the bar.
Dave hopes to be able to run shuttle buses to the new stadium and to keep his company going. He also plans a fan zone in Bootle, but the likely impact of the root movement on his company means that it is a worrying time.
Marching further on the Goodison-Weg, to rework the line of a favorite terrace song, we meet former Eerton defender Michael Ball in his partner's house, opposite the entrance of the players. Carl asks us inside, beyond the gang wall signed by dozens of players.
Ball made 121 league games for Everton and, just like Harvey and others, made the connection between the club and his fans. “I am enthusiastic about the new stadium and the environment, but this is my life,” he says. “I was only born a few streets further. My father was born in the road behind the Gwladys Street. I remember that I was walking around with him, in the pubs, who wanted to be part of it.
“He took me to the game when I was four or five. I was lucky to wear the shirt. Every time I see Goodison, I get a nice feeling, it's our home. Now it's a circle around. We have a new house and I bring my boy to the competition. '
Football, family and friendships. Those are the stories of Goodison.