Mason Holgate has called on Everton’s home fans to have a “massive” impact again as they attempt to harness the power of Goodison Park against Manchester City.
Everton go into their fixture against the reigning Premier League champions and current table toppers on Saturday evening just two points clear of the relegation zone after Wednesday night’s 1-0 win for Burnley over a Tottenham Hotspur side who had themselves shocked City with a last-gasp 3-2 victory at the Etihad Stadium last Saturday.
On the same day, the Blues were sinking to a 2-0 defeat at Southampton and while they have so far lost both their away games under new manager Frank Lampard (also being beaten 3-1 by fellow strugglers Newcastle United), they have won both their home matches.
The 4-1 success against Brentford in the FA Cup fourth round was the largest margin of victory for an Everton manager in his first game in charge and prompted the Goodison crowd to sing Lampard’s name in praise – only the second boss appointed by Farhad Moshiri to be afforded such an accolade along with Carlo Ancelotti – while the 3-0 drubbing of Leeds United produced the most-impressive display of the season from the players and fans alike.
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For a spell in the not-too-distant past, the Blues were something of a bogey side for City and between January 2010-October 2013, they won six of their eight fixtures against them but that trend has been reversed in recent years.
Although Pep Guardiola suffered a chastening 4-0 reversal against Everton on his first visit to Goodison Park in January 2017, City are seeking their 10th consecutive victory in the head-to-head on Saturday evening.
Defender Mason Holgate knows the input of Everton’s supporters could be a crucial factor if his side are to pull off a shock result.
Asked about the size of importance of their fans, he told the ECHO: “That’s massive, I think it’s shown in the last two home games.
“The performances haven’t been the best at Goodison for majority of the season and it’s not always been the nicest atmosphere understandably but when the last two games have come and everyone has been behind us, we’ve been in full flight and shown that teams can’t really live with us.
“The atmosphere has come from the fans and has given us the energy to get around people.”
This week also marked a year since Everton were granted planning permission at Bramley-Moore Dock by Liverpool City Council and with work on the new stadium progressing well and the team scheduled to play their first game there in 2024, Holgate is hoping to be one of the Blues players to make the switch to the club’s riverside home.
He said: “It’s very exciting, it’s a massive thing. The club wants to go in the right direction and that shows.
“It’s definitely an exciting time to be part of Everton, knowing these things are coming in the future.
“We can’t look at it straight away though, we need to build into it and keep developing as a team.
“I think with the age group of what the squad is now, there’s a large group of us who are in and around my age, 23, 24, 25.
“I think as a squad we’re going to get better and better as all of us mature.
“We’re not in our prime years yet and will hopefully get better as we go on.
“A lot of people might point to inconsistencies and stuff but it’s easy to forget that we’re quite a young team.
“As the years pass, we’re going to get stronger as a team and we’ll all be together because we all know each other really well and that can only benefit us going forward, especially with the new stadium.
“Hopefully we’ll all have pushed on and got better individually and that will help us to be a solid group as we’ll have been together all those years.”
