Staff Writer Isabel Moon-Parry explores the heated conclusion to the last Merseyside Derby at Goodison Park.
It’s the 98th minute and James Tarkowski blasts one into the top corner at the Gwladys Street End of Goodison Park, beating Alisson Becker, and equalising for Everton. Minutes later chaos unfolds as fans run onto the pitch, Liverpool’s Curtis Jones fights with Everton’s Abdoulaye Doucouré, and two of Liverpool’s staff are shown red cards, including manager Arne Slot.
Goodbye to Goodison
A fitting end then to over 130 years of Merseyside Derbies played at the old stadium that once saw Franz Beckenbauer score a World Cup Semi-Final winning goal for West Germany.
The game was the final Merseyside derby played between Liverpool and Everton at Goodison Park ahead of Everton’s move to their new home at the 52,000 capacity Bramley-Moore Dock in the Vauxhall region of the city, which is set to open in the summer of 2025.
Everton had moved to Goodison Park from their original home at Anfield in 1892 after a dispute with the owner of the land, John Houlding, over the payment of rent by the club. Goodison was located on the other side of Stanley Park from Anfield and kept Everton within the local area.
Houlding, with a stadium and no team to play in it, decided to create Everton Football Club and Athletic Grounds which would soon be renamed to Liverpool Football Club. His new team would go on to form a local rivalry with Everton in one of the most historic derbies in the country.
The Final Battle of Goodison
The final derby at the ground, which had originally been scheduled for a 12:30 pm kick off on the 7th December, had been postponed to the 12th February for an 8pm kick off due to severe weather conditions as a result of Storm Darragh. This meant that going into the match, Liverpool had a game in hand over league rivals Arsenal with a win sending them nine clear at the top of the table
Everton’s Beto opened the scoring with an 11th minute goal. The Blues lead didn’t last for long though as Alexis Mac Allister equalised 5 minutes later with a header from a cross provided by Mohammed Salah, whose chase for the Ballon d’Or continues, giving him his 14th assist of the league campaign.
An injury to Everton’s Iliman Ndiaye forced them into making a substitution in the 25th minute, bringing on Jack Robinson as a replacement.
The first of the yellow cards came from referee Michael Oliver in the 27th minute when he booked Liverpool’s Andy Roberton after a foul on Gueye. In swift succession, Everton received two yellow cards in the 35th and 37th minutes for Jesper Lindstrøm and Idrissa Gueye respectively. Rounding out the first half were two more yellow cards handed out by Oliver to Liverpool’s Conor Bradley in the 45th+2 minute and to Everton’s Abdoulaye Doucouré in the 45th+3 minute.
Curtis Jones for Liverpool got the next yellow card, bringing the total to six, in the 63rd minute just two minutes after he came on for Conor Bradley.
Liverpool thought they had won the game in the 73rd minute when their man on fire, Mohammed Salah, scored his 22nd goal of the Premier League season so far in just 24 games. Salah, whose contract with the league leaders is set to expire at the end of the season, ran away from goal and slid towards the away end before pointing to the badge on his shirt in celebration as the team looked certain to rise to nine points clear of Arsenal.
Chaos at the End
Over the next 15 minutes the chaos continued as the game got out of hand for Michael Oliver who was unable to control the atmosphere. A controversial decision by the referee to not award a foul against Mohammed Salah was widely panned by pundits and Liverpool fans alike.
Despite a possible foul in the build up, and the game being in its 7th minute of 5 minutes of added time, Everton saw a chance come their way in front of the Gwladys Street End. A wayward ball fell to James Tarkowksi who took his chance and smashed the ball expertly into the top right corner, giving Everton the equaliser.
As Tarkowksi began to run towards the fans in celebration of the goal, some began to spill onto the pitch and over the advertising hoardings. One fan was even spotted lifting up the corner flag in jubilation.
After a lengthy five minute VAR check on the goal for offside, Everton fans and players celebrated fully. One player, Abdoulaye Doucoure, did so in front of the away fan section full of Liverpool fans.
Seeing Doucoure’s celebration, childhood Liverpool fan, Curtis Jones sprinted toward him and began to push him while shouting towards him. He was closely followed by two other Everton players who began to separate the players.
Players from both teams began to intervene in the scuffle with Everton’s goalkeeper, Jordan Pickford being hit in the head with a plastic bottle thrown by the crowd.
Oliver then handed out further cards with both Jones and Doucoure being shown red.
After giving a handshake to Michael Oliver on the way off the pitch, Liverpool’s manager Arne Slot was also shown a red card as was his assistant, Sipke Hulshoff. The Premier League’s now deleted statement claimed the card for Slot was given due to ‘offensive, insulting, or abusive language’.
It has not been confirmed that Slot will be on the side-lines for Liverpool’s clash with Wolves. If he isn’t, and with Hulshoff’s additional ban, they are most likely to be managed by Liverpool’s other assistant coach, Johnny Heitinga.
Heitinga most famously featured in 140 games for Everton as a player and was more recently West Ham’s top assistant coach during the tenure of current Everton head coach David Moyes, a situation which rather ironically sums up the final Merseyside Derby at Goodison.
