New photography book captures candid images of Blues fans’ final Goodison match days

A new photography book captures candid matchday images of Everton fans in the final seasons of Goodison.

Onward documents not only the atmosphere around the ground, but en route to and from home games, showing the rituals and traditions of generations of Blues.

The book has been compiled by life-long supporter and photographer Brian Sayle from New Brighton who wanted to create a lasting memory that fellow fans could relate to.

He said:

“Onward is not really so much about the club or the stadium, but the support,”.

“I’ve been taking photographs for a long time so I had thousands of images. Initially I wasn’t taking them with the idea of doing a book, it just went in that direction once I started to build up the archive.

“I realised I needed to do something other than just put them on Facebook and Instagram; something more meaningful that would last.

“Early last season I developed an idea of what I wanted to do and from then I started to look for pictures I would need to put in the book, rather than just taking random photographs.

“Once I had the concept it gave me more to work towards and new ideas I hadn’t thought of previously which made it better for the photography because I had a clear vision.”

Onward is split into 19 chapters, each dedicated to an element of match-going, including a detailed look at Gwladys Street, Bullens Road, Goodison Road, Goodison at night, and travelling to games.

“One of the first chapters is called We Go The Game,” says Brian. “I went down to Sandhills one night, because I specifically wanted pictures of people getting the soccer bus up to Goodison from the station at night. Next season we won’t be doing that so I figured it was something I wanted to document.”

Some chapters are longer than others – Brian admits he added a short one on David Moyes just to include one photograph he particularly liked – and photographs are broken up with text and scans of tickets and season tickets.

Those date back to the 1960s and many belonged to Brian’s late dad who took him to his first Everton game.

“I first went in ‘84 with my parents so for me personally there are a lot of memories there. In the chapter Get Down to Goodison Park I talk about how my dad introduced me to football so I’ve got some of his season tickets and ticket stubs from the ‘60s mixed in with my own season tickets from the ‘80s.

“More subtly, there are a lot of photographs of fathers and sons. We always used to get the train to Kirkdale and there’s one picture of the back of a father and son going up the stairs. The kid’s got a bobble hat on similar to one I used to wear so it could have been me, but 40 years earlier.

“In a way this my story, but I think people can read the book, see the pictures and how it relates to their stories and their memories as well.”

The final match at Goodison Park against Southampton obviously concludes the book, although Brian says he had so many fantastic images from the day it could have filled one in its own right.

On the back cover he uses the quote from Blues legend Andy Gray at that game:

“We all may be leaving Goodison, but Goodison will never leave us”. 

Brian, 51, has dedicated the book to his parents, who have both now passed away.

“At the back is a picture of the first seats we sat in, I got that on the final game, so that’s quite poignant. 

“But the last picture is actually of people from the council sweeping up the rubbish on Goodison Road after the last game. I’d put a lot of thought into the various chapters and how it would end and seeing that, it felt like the final curtain.”

The 152 page book, priced £20, is available here and shops including Write Blend in Crosby, News From Nowhere on Bold Street, and Lovelocks Coffee shop on Old Haymarket.

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