ON Saturday, Everton fans get to see their team play in daylight at Goodison Park for the first time this season . . . on September 29! But after two pulsating night games in the Premier League so far this season, David Prentice looks back at some of Goodison’s greatest light nights

KEVIN MIRALLAS is just the latest Evertonian to notice it: night matches at Goodison are different.

After playing his first two Everton home games under lights, the Blues new Belgian striker said: “I’ve always preferred playing night games. And I’ve been fortunate to have now played two games at Goodison, both at night.

“It’s a fantastic atmosphere and you always get the feeling that the fans are right behind you.”

It’s a feeling which has long been shared by fans and footballers alike.

From the very first match under lights at Goodison Park, way back on Wednesday, October 9, 1957, when Everton entertained neighbours Liverpool.

There was a trophy at stake that night – a cup provided by the Liverpool County FA to celebrate its 75th anniversary – but the match was advertised as a friendly.

But with Liverpool then playing in Division Two, derby matches were few and far between and a crowd of 58,771 gathered under the floodlights to watch the top flight team triumph 2-0.

The extra illumination provided by the 185 feet high floodlight towers (the highest in the country at that time), each with 36 1,500 watt tungsten bulbs costing 25 shillings each, still didn’t prevent controversy.

“Did referee Mitchell of Whiston err when he disallowed what Liverpool claimed was a perfect goal by Tony Rowley?” asked the Daily Post’s Leslie Edwards. “And was Eddie Thomas, the scorer of Everton’s second goal, offside, when Hickson slid the ball over to him to plant into an empty net?”

Edwards answered in the affirmative each time, but Everton still ran out winners of the historic clash.

Strangely neither Everton nor Liverpool were pioneers of floodlit football – despite Everton’s early Victorian nickname of the Moonlight Dribblers or their brief floodlit football experiment way back in 1890 when “16 Wells Patent Lights were erected 25 feet above the Anfield ground and the matchball was painted white so it could be more easily picked out in the ghostly glow.”

That game, against Sheffield United, took place on January 9, 1890. Such was the interest in the experiment that 8,000 spectators turned up to see the 5-2 victory.

Two days later another floodlit match against Lancashire Nomads attracted only 3,000 and the evening games on Merseyside went into cold storage for another 60 years.

The new pioneers of floodlit football in the 1950s were Swindon and ... South Liverpool, who used lights in September 1949 to highlight a match against a touring Nigerian XI at Holly Park, Garston in front of 13,000 people. Everton followed suit eight years later, and the Daily Post report actually suggested why the grass looks greener at night matches.

“The beginning of the season is the best time to see floodlit soccer,” it reported. “When pitches become churned and muddy in winter the dull earth will absorb much of the light, instead of reflecting it as a good crop of grass will.”

It has continued to reflect it ever since.

Today we put the spotlight on a dozen night matches which lit up Goodison.

Everton 0 Inter 0.

Wednesday, Sept 18, 1963 Attendance: 62,408

THE Beatles had just gone to number one with ‘She Loves You’ and a great air of anticipation gripped the city for the first European Cup tie staged on Merseyside.

Ticket prices had been raised for the visit of the Italian champions Inter, but the tie still attracted 62,000 spectators generating a spectacular atmosphere.

Evertonian author George Orr recalled: “It was chaos before the game. I was working in TJ Hughes in London Road and the city centre was blocked because the traffic was horrendous going up to Goodison.

“I have never seen the likes of it since. It was as if everyone was trying to get to the game earlier than normal. It was pandemonium trying to get to the ground.”

Everton 1 Liverpool 0Saturday March 11, 1967 Attendance: 64,851 (at Goodison) 40,149 (at Anfield)

THE fifth round FA Cup tie was played on a Saturday night, with a 7pm kick-off – because so many people wanted to watch the match.

More than 64,000 crammed into Goodison Park, while Granada Television’s suggestion to stage a close circuit TV relay to Anfield was eagerly accepted by more than 40,149 at Anfield.

They saw a tense cup tie, settled by Alan Ball’s solitary strike.

Everton 2 WBA 0Wednesday, April 1 1970 Attendance: 58,523

A COLD, wintry April evening outside Goodison was dispelled by a red-hot atmosphere inside the stadium the night Everton were crowned champions for the seventh time.

Goals by Alan Whittle and Colin Harvey clinched the championship.”

Everton 1 Burnley 1Friday, April 4 1975Attendance: 46,882

EVERTON were closing in on the First Division title in the spring of 1975, when Lancashire neighbours Burnley came to Goodison.

With The Grand National being staged the following day the match was played on a Friday evening.

The gate of 46,882 was topped only by that season’s derby match, but the large crowd couldn’t roar on the Blues to victory, Peter Noble cancelling out Bob Latchford’s goal.

The 1-1 draw sent Everton a point clear at the top, but in one of the tightest title races for years they were joined on 47 points (two points for a win) the very next day by Liverpool, who won 2-0 at Leeds, Stoke and Derby County.

Everton 2 Swindon 1Tuesday, February 1, 1977 Attendance 38,063

A NEW manager always generates interest – and when Everton unveiled new boss Gordon Lee, resplendent in a fleecy collared sheepskin coat – ahead of an FA Cup replay against lower league Swindon Town, there were 11,000 more than had watched the previous home league game against QPR.

They saw a thriller. Everton trailed with 12 minutes to go, then Martin Dobson equalised sparking a mini pitch invasion, but when young full-back Dave Jones capped a buccaneering run with his first Blues goal in the last minute, the supporters came streaming over the Gwladys Street wall onto the pitch.

“I thought the Gwladys Street was going to take me home with them,” Jones cheerfully commented afterwards.

Everton 2 Sunderland 0Thursday May 19, 1977 Attendance: 36,075

IT takes two to tango, and on a Thursday evening in May 1977 a remarkable Goodison atmosphere was generated by a huge Wearside following.

Sunderland needed a result to escape relegation – and an enormous army of supporters packed into the Park End.

They were devastated by Bob Latchford and Bruce Rioch goals – and then had roars of relief cut short when the tannoy announcer incorrectly announced that Coventry had beaten Bristol City, thus sparing Sunderland from the drop. A delayed kick-off meant that match still had 15 minutes to run so they played out a 2-2 draw which shamed football.

Everton 1 Southampton 0 Tuesday, Feb 17, 1981 Attendance: 49,192

THE official gate for an FA Cup fifth round replay against Southampton was almost 50,000. But in the days of open terraces and gates opening 15 minutes from time to let out early leavers, thousands more crammed in without paying to create a seething, tumultuous atmosphere.

They exploded when Eamonn O’Keefe hit an extra time winner and sent Everton in the quarter-finals.

Everton 3 Bayern Munich 1Wednesday, April 24, 1985 Attendance: 49,476

REGARDED, quite simply, as possibly the greatest night in Goodison’s history.

Everton trailed at half-time in their first major European semi-final to the outstanding Germans, but boss Howard Kendall told his talented team: “Get the ball into their box and the Gwladys Street will suck the ball into the net.”

They did, twice, from Graeme Sharp and Andy Gray prods, then Trevor Steven clipped a sweet third past Jean Marie Pfaff to send Goodison bouncing.

Everton 2 Liverpool 0Monday, November 21, 1994.Attendance: 39,866

EVERTON were rock bottom of the Premier League, Liverpool were flying high in fourth. But the Blues had an old hero at the helm for the first time in Joe Royle.

And when Duncan Ferguson scored his first goal for the club, a lifelong love affair was born. Ferguson also helped set up the second goal for Paul Rideout.

Everton 1 Manchester United 0Wednesday, April 20, 2005 Attendance: 37,160

BIG Dunc was a much older man in the spring of 2005, but he still produced one just when it mattered most to help propel Everton to a fourth place finish and a place in the Champions League qualifiers – they would finish above Liverpool for the first time in 18 years.

Everton 2 Fiorentina 0Wednesday March 12, 2008 Attendance: 38,026

SOME of Goodison’s best bear-pit atmospheres come in the unlikeliest of matches – and this was one.

Fiorentina led 2-0 from a tepid Europea League last 16 first leg clash in Florence, but roared on by a defiant crowd in the second leg Everton were a team transformed.

Andy Johnson pulled a goal back, and at the half-time whistle, the crowd rose to deliver the kind of ovation usually reserved for full-time victories. And when Mikel Arteta (left) crashed in a spectacular second to force extra time the noise crescendo was immense.

Fiorentina won on penalties, but even then the Blues were applauded warmly off.

Everton 1 Manchester United 0August 20, 2012Attendance: 38,415.

SIR Alex Ferguson blamed his team selection being leaked, he blamed the Blues ‘lumping’ the ball to a ‘big, tall gangly lad’ and he blamed a poor United performance.

He didn’t give credit to an electrifying Goodison atmosphere which inspired David Moyes’ side and intimidated his.