Everton’s home game with Newcastle United was held up for eight minutes when a protester attached himself to goalpost with a zip tie around his neck. Blues club staff, who brought out bolt cutters, struggled to prise him free in what was one of the most-surreal sights ever spotted on a matchday at the ground.
It’s not the first time that the stadium has witnessed bizarre incidents though and here’s a look back at some of Goodison Park’s weirdest moments.
Southall sit-in
Before last night’s match, Everton legend Neville Southall made a passionate plea for Blues supporters to get behind their side against the Magpies. The Welshman proclaimed : “Hi all Evertonians. Everton is my club, my passion, my life. We need to get behind the lads tonight and really give it to Newcastle.”
It was understandable really. As well widely-considered as being the best goalkeeper in the world in his peak, Southall played more games for the Blues than any other player (751) and won more trophies with the club than anyone else. However, back in 1990 with Everton in a post- Howard Kendall decline, all was not well with Big Nev who staged his own goalpost demonstration.
With the Blues 3-0 down at the break at home to newly-promoted Leeds United on the opening day of the season, Southall re-emerged early from the home dressing room and took up his unlikely pew. It was an act that manager Colin Harvey was not made aware of until after the game and although the manager tried to play down the incident publicly, he fined Southall a week’s wages (an estimated £3,000-£4,000) before saying: “Neville intended no slight to me, to the club or to the Everton fans.
“There was no bust-up between Neville and myself, and I think he regrets going out on the field.”
The ECHO also tracked down the mystery fan who had also taken to the Goodison turf to confront Southall. Jimmy Sanders, a 37-year-old from Park Lane, Netherton, earned 15 minutes in the cells for his troubles after leaving his place in the Lower Bullens Stand to remonstrate with the goalkeeper on the pitch but felt that it was well worth it. He said: “I told him ‘Get up and wear your Everton shirt with pride.’”
Four days later as Everton were beaten again, 3-1 at Coventry City, the goalkeeper was met by an angry banner in the away end at Highfield Road that read: “Judas Southall. Once a binman, always a binman.” Then the day before Everton’s third game of the season, another loss, 1-0 at ex-boss Kendall’s Manchester City, which left them rooted to the bottom of the table, Southall spoke exclusively to the ECHO to reveal his side of the story.
In conversation with Ken Rogers from his house in his home town of Llandudno, the 31-year-old said: “People thought that I had come out to make a point about my transfer request and that I’d sat down to make my feelings clear. That had nothing to do with it whatsoever. We didn't have the best of first halves. After all that had gone on last season, which to be honest wasn’t one of our best, the last thing I wanted was to start off in the first league game with a bad defeat.”
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Having a ball
There have been a few odd-looking mascots at Goodison Park over the years – a long-standing sponsorship arrangement with a Thai brewery produced Changy the elephant while Peter Johnson was accused of sullying the name of Everton’s greatest goalscorer Dixie Dean by naming a strange half man/half toffee character after him in the 1990s – but none of them quite compare to ‘Mr Testicles.’
A roving ambassador to promote a male cancer awareness campaign, there was a serious side to his role but the sight of a googly-eyed, smiling upside down set of genitalia – complete with spiky hair – slotting home penalties ensured he earned an unlikely place as one of the club’s most-unlikely cult heroes.
Sly move
Almost a decade before the arrival of Farhad Moshiri at Everton and the majority shareholder dubbing England’s North West region the “Hollywood of football”, Goodison Park experienced a sprinkling of genuine Tinsel Town stardust. Sylvester Stallone – who once played the American goalkeeper ‘Hatch’ in the cult 1981 football film Escape to Victory alongside the likes of Pele and Bobby Moore – seemed to revel in his Goodison cameo as it was a performance he entered into with great gusto.
Invited by his Everton shareholder friend Robert Earl who owned the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain to come over and promote his latest production Rocky Balboa – the sixth instalment of the boxing franchise series – Stallone strolled out to the centre circle while the strains of the iconic Rocky theme tune Gonna Fly Now blared out over the stadium’s public address system, enthusiastically waving a blue and white Everton scarf above his head. Taking his bow, while also wearing an Everton-branded jacket, Stallone lapped up the adulation of the crowd as chants of: “Rocky, Rocky” emanated from all four corners of Goodison.
Bad dad
Given that they enjoyed the highest average attendances during the first decade of the Football League from 1888, Evertonians can justifiably claim to be the game’s oldest major fanbase. Their loyal supporters have passed down their allegiances throughout the generations for well over a century and taking their children to the match has long been a rite of passage for many True Blue parents.
However, one fan produced the unsavoury scene of becoming embroiled in a bust-up between players while holding a child. Tempers spilled over during Everton’s Europa League group game against Lyon in 2017 with home captain Ashley Williams sparking a melee by pushing opponent Anthony Lopes into some advertising boards.
As members of both sides waded in and traded blows, a supporter in the Lower Gwladys Street left his seat, surged forward and tried to throw a punch towards Lopes as he carried a youngster in his other arm.
Strip show
Ray Atteveld almost delivered a ‘Full Monty’ to Goodison at the end of his first season. Again the tale features Southall – who went even further in terms of taking to the field naked during a pre-season tour in 1994 – and once more it’s from 1990. Dutchman Atteveld joined Everton in the summer of 1989, shortly after the signing of Swedish international Stefan Rehn who had become the club’s first signing from outside the British Isles.
As his debut campaign in England came to a close, the versatile performer showed that he had yet another attribute in his repertoire – taking off his clothes in front of thousands of members of the public. Recalling the incident which occurred during a lap of appreciation, Atteveld told Everton’s website : “Neville Southall did me over.
“He told me he had an offer from Barcelona, they’d given him a blank cheque and it was going to be his last match. He said to go with him after the game so we could throw our shirts in the crowd for him to say goodbye.
“I went right up to the fans but Neville threw his from further back, he knew what he was doing. The fans grabbed my shorts and shoes. I thought, ‘Okay, take what I can give’.
“But I had to fight to keep on my underpants and that was something I did not expect. Neville never did have an offer from Barcelona.”
