# Everton say farewell to Goodison Park with a fitting final win

Event date: 2025-05-18

Everton closed the Goodison Park chapter of their history with a 2-0 win over Southampton, ending 133 years of men’s senior football at the ground with the kind of emotion the old stadium seemed built to hold.

BBC Sport described the scenes around the match as immediate and unmistakable. Blue smoke rose around Goodison Park hours before kick-off, and the farewell never felt like a routine league fixture. The club used the occasion to mark the end of an era before moving toward their new home.

On the pitch, the result gave the day a clean ending. Iliman Ndiaye scored twice in the first half, delivering a performance that BBC Sport said suited the mood of the occasion. Southampton, by contrast, could not spoil the farewell and surrendered to the occasion as Everton’s supporters turned the afternoon into a celebration of place and memory.

The source noted that the match was more than a game because it marked the end of 133 years of men’s senior football at Goodison. That longevity mattered: the ground had been Everton’s home for generations, and the club’s move to Everton Stadium in Vauxhall meant a major shift in identity as well as geography.

BBC Sport captured the atmosphere rather than treating the final as a standard sporting result. It described the old ground as one that was never built for serene farewells, and the crowd seemed to reflect that. The day had history, noise and a sense of finality before the opening whistle even arrived.

Everton’s win made the farewell feel earned rather than simply ceremonial. Ndiaye’s two goals gave fans something to remember from the pitch itself, which mattered because the occasion could easily have been swallowed by nostalgia. Instead, the club left Goodison with a victory that matched the emotion in the stands.

The move to a new stadium is a practical step, but it also closes one of English football’s longest-running home grounds. That transition explains why the day carried so much weight. Goodison Park was not simply being vacated; it was being closed as a stage for men’s senior football after more than a century of service.

BBC Sport’s account stressed the atmosphere, the smoke, the noise and the sense that this was a day Evertonians had come to witness rather than merely attend. The result against Southampton ensured there was no bitter finish. Instead, the club got a proper send-off, with goals and a clean sheet to match the sentiment.

That is how Goodison Park’s final football chapter ended: not quietly, but with a win, a brace from Ndiaye and a full stadium taking in the last act of a famous old ground.