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Relief and hope on County Road as Everton set for long goodbye
Some remnants of Everton’s relegation escape were dotted around Goodison Park’s surrounding streets on the morning after the club’s Premier League survival was confirmed.
The clean-up is into its final stages as cans and stale pints in plastic cups are removed on Monday morning. The first fresh pints have started to pour from local pubs come midday, but there is already a sense this corner of L4 has dodged what could have been an unimaginable hangover.
“Relief,” says Paul O’Shaughnessy, 49, when asked what Sunday’s escape meant to him and his family, who are standing near Dixie Dean’s statue on Walton Road. He agrees there was sheer joy in seeing Abdoulaye Doucouré banish visions of the Championship with his sweet right-footed drive, but there is the prevailing sense the club shouldn’t have been in this situation.
READ MORE: It is time for change at Everton and survival cannot hide the truth
The feeling is matched by Paul’s dad, Peter O’Shaughnessy, 72, who says the Everton connection in the family goes back more than a century. “We weren’t called the School of Science for nothing,” he says of the need for change and the club to find more stable footing on the pitch.
The emotion was all too much for lifelong fan Alan Rimmer, 61, who is making his way around the ground. “I just sat on my chair and cried,” he says of the solace brought by the final whistle.
Relief and change are the words that seem to come up most when speaking to Blues after Sunday. The latter is something the wider area has already been gearing up for, with next season now confirmed as the last full Premier League campaign to take place at the famous old stadium.
Inside Reds and Blues Outlet on County Road, a mixture of the two Merseyside club’s memorabilia is on display. Even for Liverpool fan Mark Johnson, 48, who is running the store, there is relief about yesterday’s outcome.
For hours the business wasn’t accessible as brought the thoroughfare to a standstill with flags and blue flares. The city would risk losing similar scenes of pride and defiance had results gone the other way.
“I wanted Everton to stay up,” he says, noting how the club’s presence helps keep some businesses in the area afloat and adding: “People say they would like to see them go down but it wouldn’t be the same without the Derbies.”
One of those businesses Mark mentions is JT’s Bar, situated next door. It opened five months ago and Sunday provided its biggest ever day for takings, according to co-owner John Ashworth, 36, who is hard at work cleaning a well-trodden floor.
“Most people, [their club] means everything to them,” says the Liverpool fan, who admits the atmosphere was unbelievable on the day Premier League survival was secured. But there is a sense that similar days are now limited.
Not due to performances on the pitch, but because of the progress being made a few miles away at Everton’s new stadium at Bramley-Moore dock. The 2023-24 season will present itself as the opportunity for a long lap of honour for the storied club and its connection to the historic terraces that surround it.
A legacy project will mean Everton retain a distinctive and varied footprint in the area, but some plans are already being talked up to ensure the matchday atmosphere isn’t lost entirely along County Road. “A lot of people have been drinking along [County Road] for 30-40 years”, says John, who is considering using a minibus to taxi fans from the club’s current home to the new one once the transfer of the home ground takes place. He adds: “it will be a big deal for them.”
He says “it is not the end” for Everton and its relationship with the area going forward but he takes comfort in not being entirely wedded to matchday custom. It is a similar story a few doors down at the Harlech Castle, although the pub does have strong roots with seasoned matchgoers and will be a core part of many people’s game day ritual.
“Relief,” says George Smith, 59, who runs the pub with his wife Tracey Merner, when asked what feeling was most prominent after victory over Bournemouth was secured. “Relief”. The Everton fan simply repeats the word again when casting thoughts back to the 90 minutes that helped The Toffees avoid the drop.
“[We’re] hopefully going out on a bit of a high,” he says of Everton’s final full season at Goodison being in the Premier League. Change is something that will also have to be embraced.
“We’re fortunate that we have a good clientele without the football,” he says “We’re not reliant fully on football, but [this area], it needs some regeneration.
“Don’t forget, it’s only 20 days every year that it is there. Only three weeks out of 52. It is a big impact for three weeks of the year.”
On the corner of Spellow Lane inside The Royal Oak, Dave Martin, 65, is looking forward to writing more history as the club enters its final full year. He and his wife took over the running of the pub a year ago and they too had their busiest day to date as Everton avoided the drop – something aided by a “carnival atmosphere” as fans rallied to do their part for the team.
He says the business is “a little bit in limbo” until the move happens, unsure of its true impact, but there is a pride in being at the helm of such a storied establishment at such a crucial time.
The relief isn’t only shared among fans and business owners. Dave Kelly, chair of Fans Supporting Food Banks, says the initiative enjoyed “by far the biggest collection we have done for a long time.”
“The scenes on County Road after the match,” says Dave, “it tells you how important Everton Football Club is to the community.” But he adds that conversations must now be had about how that feeling is transported to the north docks – and that includes the people and businesses that are the “bedrock of what we are.”
“It was relief not celebration” says Dave of Everton’s survival, but the latter should remain at the fore as Goodison’s final days in operation are ticked off, adding: “The final season at Goodison needs to be a collection of all things good in Walton.”
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