(Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

That’s what was needed.

There was something in the air down on the docks on Saturday evening. A planned welcome for the Everton team coach by fan group, the 1878s, was timed to perfection before their latest oppenents, Chelsea rocked up to the Hill Dickinson Stadium.

With a 3-week break following this game, Everton knew a positive result would not only put them, at least temporarily, into 7th place in the Premier League, but would also close the gap to Chelsea to 6 points.

Other results did not necessarily go Everton’s way on Saturday, with Brighton’s defeat of Liverpool seeing the Seagulls move above the Toffees prior to kick-off, while Fulham had also closed in on David Moyes’s men after their 2-1 win over Burnley.

But that’s where the fans made the difference as Hill Dickinson Stadium finally got its lift-off moment.

Sure, there have been flashes of what Everton’s magnificent waterfront home can produce: The 2-0 win over Brighton in the very first competitive game there was a celebration in the sun; Jack Grealish’s last-gasp goal securing the points against Crystal Palace was the first late winner on the banks of the Mersey. 

But then a long winless run, stretching 3 months, had soured the feeling around the ground, and around the team and the manager, even if they kept on finding a way to grind out results on the road and keep themselves towards the top of the mid-table pack.

The win over Burnley in early March snapped that streak, but sour notes remained — fans leaving early, another late, midweek kick-off.

But on a bright spring day, with a 5:30 kick-off giving fans enough time to build themselves up, while not causing concerns about having to leave early to get home, Hill Dickinson Stadium became everything Evertonians want it to be.

First off, the team and manager delivered. They took the energy generated by the coach welcome — such occurrences that have, in the recent past, been reserved for must-win games in relegation battles — and transferred that onto the pitch in a top-class performance.

Chelsea, in many ways, were the perfect opponents. Coming into this on the back of three straight defeats, with a young team and a still relatively inexperienced coach in Liam Rosenior who has drawn some eye rolls from supporters with his High Performance Podcast style rhetoric in press conferences — “respecting the ball” … come on now, Liam.

But Chelsea are still a quality team with some world-class talents. Yet Everton not only outmuscled, outran and outfought them — Moyes also completely got the better of Rosenior tactically.

Beto was a battering ram up top… What is it about spring time and the big man coming good? He dragged Chelsea’s defenders every which way, and his finish for the opener was exquisite. He deserved his luck for his second, when his shot squirmed through Robert Sanchez’s legs.

James Garner, fresh from his richly deserved England call-up, set up Beto with one of the passes of the season. Back in midfield, with James Tarkowski fit enough to return to the defence, Garner ran the show along with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Idrissa Gana Gueye, who has certainly hit his high standards again in recent weeks.

The defence was robust, hardly giving Chelsea much of a sniff, and when the Blues from London did create an opening, Jordan Pickford was in no mood for not achieving his 100th clean sheet with Everton.

To top it all off, Iliman Ndiaye, a threat throughout, curled in a sensational finish and that’s when the jubilation really set in.

A man with a toaster and some crumpets went viral on social media — he can join the ‘Goodison dog’ and the Just Stop Oil protestor in those moments that are just somehow, iconically Everton.

Everton now have more home league wins this season than they managed in the last campaign at Goodison Park. The bar was low, but with Liverpool, Manchester City and Sunderland to come, the club needed a defining match like this to really generate some momentum heading into the run-in.

How far can that momentum take them?

 

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 Posted
23/03/2026 at
13:08:41

Hmmm… “Other results did not necessarily go Everton’s way on Saturday, with Brighton’s defeat of Liverpool seeing the Seagulls move above the Toffees prior to kick-off”

Not sure I would have written that, Patric. Any defeat of the Devil’s Spawn is something to be celebrated — especially if it means in this instance we are now 3 points closer to them.

 Posted
23/03/2026 at
14:00:10

Patric,

I have to agree with Michael, can’t believe you’d prefer a redshite win, and leaves us only 3 points behind them, and a visit here in a few weeks time?

 Posted
23/03/2026 at
14:53:21

I don’t think many would have written that Patric, but the overall article was really positive mate, although I think if the stadium is going to have real lift-off, then we have got to beat Liverpool, in our next home game🤞

 Posted
23/03/2026 at
16:10:22

Spot on, Tony.

Applied in the ballot for a ticket, but will probably have to watch from the comforts of a bar somewhere.

The last derby I watched with a pint in my hand was the 2-0 win with Calvert-Lewin scoring.

Something along those lines in April and the builders will be glad they didn’t put a roof on.

 Posted
23/03/2026 at
18:54:05

Nowhere feels like home until you have made memorable moments. A house is just a house until you’ve got comfortable, got your things in, lived in it for a while, had good times and bad, then it feels like home.

The stadium is amazing, no one can deny, but it’s like moving to a new build house. it takes a while to feel like home and the more memorable moments the team and fans create, then it’s creating it’s own story, it’s own atmosphere, it’s own personality.

It’s not Goodison, it will never be, but it showed on the weekend, it can still be a hostile place to play with the noise of 50-odd thousand Blues up for it.

Only going to get better.

 Posted
23/03/2026 at
19:24:02

I think James Garner deserves his own song

 Posted
23/03/2026 at
19:56:44

Our Number 37, he never lets us down
Jimmy Jimmy Garner
From Birkenhead town

He once wore red
He now wears blue
Jimmy Jimmy Garner
A Toffee through and through

 Posted
23/03/2026 at
20:31:31

Not as good as Dixie — I don’t think many were.

But you play like Paul Bracewell: full of hard work and a real duty of care!

 Posted
23/03/2026 at
20:37:07

We need to talk about Beto! Why has he gone from being Biffo to being a monster?

I’ve commented previously about a complete lack of ball control, finishing and brains… Frankly, l would have been glad to see the back of him.

But recently he’s got the bit between his teeth and his performances — particularly on Saturday night and against Newcastle — he’s been unplayable. His first goal on Saturday was nothing short of a world-class finish.

His headed assist to Ndiaye was brilliant. Where has this Beto been? He’s a different player with the ball ahead of him.

 Posted
23/03/2026 at
20:57:20

In response to the first two comments, it was simply referring to Brighton going above Everton prior to kick-off. In my view, anything that means Everton going down places in the table is a result that has gone against Everton (as glad as I was that Liverpool lost).

And in the bigger picture, Everton have now done their job and closed the gap themselves. So it worked out well in the end!

 Posted
23/03/2026 at
21:42:29

Merle.

There is a clip going around featuring Garner and Beto. Garner says Beto has been asking the other players for balls played on the floor to him. He said himself that we haven’t given him the service he likes. Perhaps the better service explains the massive improvement in the big man’s performances.

I think Barry will improve too, as long as we don’t revert back to asking our strikers to act like performing seals.

 Posted
23/03/2026 at
21:57:00

The majority of the fans understand the service Beto wants. I’m surprised it took that long for the penny to drop at Finch Farm.

Beto gets stick for missing lots of chances. I’m struggling to put a list together of half a dozen of those misses.

Tell you one thing, the two ladies playing centre-back for the Devil’s club won’t be looking forward to playing against him.

 Posted
23/03/2026 at
22:00:16

Clearly the players are talking and sorting it out among themselves John…

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