A lucky group of Everton fans witnessed history last night as the club opened its new Bramley-Moore Dock stadium, but the evening was tainted by Liverpool supporter Harrison Rimmer.
A crowd of 10,000, including representatives of new owners The Friedkin Group, watched the under-18s take on their Wigan counterparts in the first of three test events.
It took just 12 minutes for Rimmer, who last Wednesday scored in a 4-0 win at Fleetwood’s Poolfoot Farm training ground in front of a handful of spectators, to get the first goal at the new ground.
He could not resist milking his moment in the limelight and held up six fingers in reference to Liverpool’s six Champions League titles.
Cole Simms doubled the visitors’ lead shortly after and that proved decisive, despite Ray Roberts’ late penalty. But most in attendance were happy just to be there despite the 2-1 loss.
Fans streamed towards the futuristic-looking stadium past the Bramley Moore pub, which has sat just over the road from the historic old dock wall since 1758 and has seen a marked increase in the number of day-trippers on the long-deserted Regent Road since construction started.
It was doing a roaring trade before kick-off and, come August, will be a potential goldmine, being within a Jordan Pickford goal-kick of the stadium, and the expectation is the regeneration will spread across a largely-derelict area.
Work on the current site finally began in the summer of 2021 and the build was completed in December.
And next season – providing Everton maintain their current position well above the relegation zone – the 52,888-capacity ground will become the Premier League’s seventh biggest. The venue will also host matches at Euro 2028.
The project, the cost of which incorporates some regeneration of the immediate area, will contribute an estimated £1.3bn to the UK economy and create 15,000 jobs.
‘It was a landmark event, in terms of the Club and the hope and positivity moving forward into a new future,’ said Everton Under-18s head coach Keith Southern .
‘We had a lot of Under-16s come on, we had an Under-15 play some minutes. Everybody got some game time, which was always going to be the case, but there’s still some disappointed faces, in terms of the result.”
On the scoreline, Southern acknowledged the occasion perhaps got the better of some his players in the early stages, but recognises the Toffees – who hit the woodwork three times – were unlucky not to score another.
‘The players have never played in front of a crowd like that before and they’ve never played in an arena like this before,” he continued. “So, it’s difficult to keep a lid on emotions.
‘But listen, we’re not too disappointed and it was a fantastic occasion for these boys. It was a fantastic occasion for the Academy, and everyone connected with this Football Club.”
Being part of the first game at Everton’s new stadium was ‘a really, really proud moment’ for Southern, who added: ‘I came down at 16 from school, had five years at the Football Club as a youth-team player and now I’m fortunate to come back and be part of something special – because this club is special.’
No comments:
Post a Comment