The two men employed to carry the Premier League signage out onto the pitch bore the brunt of it. The match officials, deemed to be representatives of the organisation which has delivered Everton to the depths of the Premier League, were also treated to whistles and howls of derision before a ball was kicked.
Briefly, this was a different Goodison Park – febrile and boiling with perceived injustice. It was uncomfortable at times. A place with edge. Fireworks were released outside the stadium as the game played out. Fans remonstrated with journalists in the press box, finger-pointing after leaving their seats at half-time.
‘All for one, one for all’, a line from one of the old anthems here, took the roof off the place like never before – telegraphing what others can expect here in the months ahead.
But the scenes in the moments before kick-off were perhaps the most extraordinary of all: a sea of pink ‘Corrupt’ cards held aloft and the Premier League anthem drowned out by whistles. Only the competition’s organisers know why they even bothered with that confection.
There was evidence, too, of the significance of Sean Dyche to what lies ahead. Not all here have warmed to the man, though a vast banner unfurled on the Gwladys Street end bore his image and the old Joe Royle catchphrase ’Dogs of War.’ Dyche always did seem a good man for a crisis like this.
Goodison Park felt different on Sunday as Everton fans created a hostile atmosphere
The stadium was on edge as supporters made their anger at the Premier League known over 10-point deduction
A sea of pink ‘corrupt’ cards were held aloft as the Premier League anthem was drowned out by whistles
What ensued when the football began showed how desperately Everton need such a spirit to endure, as they attempt the long climb from the depths.
For a time, after Alejandro Garnacho’s early goal from the gods, there was a real show of spirit. A goal-line clearance. Derring-do. Yet the inconvenient truth is that the club have fallen desperately in that futile battle they waged to cut costs and break even, when the profligate spending had stopped.
It says everything that Ashley Young, a 38-year-old who left Old Trafford three years ago, is a part of the bit-part group Dyche has assembled after inheriting such wreckage. Needs be, for a club who spent so recklessly and for so long. As is so often the case, chances passed Dominic Calvert-Lewin by. Abdoulaye Doucoure missed with the Manchester United goal at his mercy.
So it was the United enclave making the noise – hurling taunts about Everton ‘cheating’, including, ‘Are you City in disguise?’ There was evidence, in that song, of how Everton’s punishment has brought City’s 115 Premier League charges back out into the light. ‘115’ stated a banner held high in the small United end.
The light on Everton’s rage began to dim as the Toffees went 3-0 down against Man United
Though the light gradually dimmed on that Goodison rage, it will take some extinguishing. That much was clear 45 minutes before kick-off, when perhaps 800 fans gathered outside the Brick pub on Eton Street to begin what they called an ‘atmosphere march’ – which was putting it mildly.
A group of teenagers climbed onto a bus shelter, letting off blue flares, as those beneath sang of the Premier League, ‘corrupt as ****.
The talk was less visceral, though still indignant, among those in the Denbigh Castle pub, off Dale Street in central Liverpool, when they gathered at midday.
In an establishment where signed images of Bob Latchford, Peter Reid and others fill the walls, the perceived disproportionality of Everton’s punishment was a prime topic of conversation as Aberdeen led Rangers on the TV screens.
Before kick off, Everton fans had gathered to march through the streets in an act of defiance
Two youngster climbed on top of a bus shelter letting off blue flares as fans continued to dub the Premier League as ‘corrupt’
The threats of other clubs now attempting to sue Everton was also infuriating people too. ‘It’s classless,’ said Dave, in the pub with his father-in-law and son.
‘These clubs are actually saying that we gained a clear competitive advantage by over-spending? West Ham breaking the stay up after illegally signing Carlos Tevez. That’s “clear competitive advantage.” Just you mark the names of these clubs, coming at us now, when they’re on the receiving end of stuff like this.’
In this still space, four and half hours out from kick off, there was a readiness to reflect that Everton are not entirely victims; that there was a rank incompetence about the way the club was run. Loans they claimed had been taken out to finance their new stadium were not allocated properly, leading the Premier League’s independent commission to conclude – reasonably – that the money was used for the club’s running costs.
Everton’s principal strategy in an appeal against the ten-point deduction – which they must lodge by Friday – is expected to involve questioning the impartiality of the three-man commission, included a former West Ham executive, which imposed the penalty. But not all fans are alleging Premier League corruption.
This was a protest movement for its time, with fans asking anyone they could find to picture them with those pink cards in front of Goodison
There was not much quiet reflection around the old stadium, though. The pink ‘Corrupt’ cards were attached to any available spot – car and house windows, the Dixie Dean statue, a pile of steaming horse manure on Goodison Road – and it seemed like a contest between pubs to find the best form or protest.
Staff at the Winslow pub on Goodison Road wore ‘Corrupt’ hoodies. A vast sheet, hung across the front of The Brick club proclaimed: ‘Where there is power, greed and money – there is corruption.’
This was a protest movement for its time, with fans asking anyone they could find to picture them with those pink cards in front of Goodison.
It would all have been utterly alien to those Everton players whose careers were chronicled in the old programmes and memorabilia being sold up on the second floor of St Luke’s church.
Sean Dyche will need the same spirit and rage showed by fans if his side are to survive
But a range of ‘Corrupt’ badges there had sold out by 2.30pm and the place was alive with talk of points deductions, proportionality and the fact that the five-year investigation into Manchester City is still showing no signs of eliciting the same commission hearing which has delivered Everton their outcome.
‘It pains me to say it but the team that have the biggest complaint about Manchester City is the one over the park,’ said Richard Gillham, secretary of the Everton FC Heritage Society, articulating how Liverpool might have been deprived titles which were rightfully theirs. ‘Some Liverpool fans are with us on this, Gillham said. ‘They also know that this is wrong.’ City deny any wrongdoing.
Goodison had emptied long before the end of the match, though there were some last rousing cheers for Dyche’s players from those who remained and more whistles for the departing officials.
After the sound and fury come the hard yards: the tough and unremitting struggle through the depths of winter towards a position of safety. They will need dogs of war and a lot more besides.
