Nil Satis – Hill Dicky Optimism?

Sunday, August 24th, 2025, will bring about the first competitive game at Hill Dickinson Stadium, and with it, the chance to start a new era for Everton Football Club. Nobody knows if the move will work in our favour or if it will become a massive albatross around our neck for the foreseeable future. The cost of building this incredible venue nearly meant we didn’t have a future at all. We were on the brink.

I’m writing this in the hope that Evertonians will share my call for patience as we make HDS our new home. It’s unfamiliar: new routines, new meeting places, questions over where the atmosphere will be generated, even how to use the self-serve kiosks without being accused of stealing – etc, etc. With the move also comes a bigger adjustment for the most important people inside the new place: the players.

We need to be behind them from the start. Don’t start booing after the first misplaced pass or when we concede. If Brighton beat us, don’t let that one game set the tone for the rest of the season at home. We’re all paying a pretty penny to be there – why make it a moody experience and a chore to attend every other week?

I understand that some people are scared to leave Goodison and the safety blanket it provided. That sentiment has been echoed in the media, often referencing West Ham, Spurs, and others, and how long it took them to acclimatise – if they ever did.

I’ve thought about that, and honestly, I’m not so sure Goodison played a big part in helping us stay up these past few seasons. Maybe on the occasions when the fans rallied with coach greetings and the like, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.

I did a little research on the number of home wins in league and cup games for the past 10 seasons, and the outcome isn’t great. For league games we have a win rate of 42%, cup games 58% and an overall win record of 45%. That’s a total of 101 wins from 226 games, and an average of 10 wins per season. For league games only it’s 8 wins. Across those seasons and staying with League games only, we lost 33% (63 games) and drew 25% (45 games).

We scored 274 goals and conceded 230, scoring 1.4 goals per game. The worst season for goals per game was 2022/23 season with 0.8. Last season was the worst for win %, coming in at only 26% and scoring only 26 goals. The average goals scored per season is 27!! Our best season at Goodison in recent times was Koeman’s first season, winning 12 home games (63%), scoring 42 with 2.2 goals per game and securing 41pts on home turf.

In this period, we secured 585 points, 287 of them came at home, 298 came away from Goodison. Below is a quick visualisation of wins and win % for home league games.

Does that seem like a safety blanket or a fortress were teams fear to tread? I don’t think it does. It also shows our players didn’t like playing there. I’ll be honest, Goodison was a toxic place towards the end, and only tempered in the final months when Moyes came back, coupled with the realisation we were leaving, everyone got sentimental, and we were safe. Listen, I’m not saying it’s all the fan’s fault, the club hasn’t given us anything decent to shout about, but we’ve had a part to play in it, good and bad. I’m guilty of being one of the toxic people at points in the past because I just couldn’t see when the bleakness of supporting Everton would stop.

Obviously, this is only my opinion, and stats can be massaged to fit any narrative a person wants them to support. I should know, I’m a data analyst and I was going to bore you with more stats and visuals, I resisted the urge. However, I think it’s clear that we need the fresh start, and I mean as a whole club: fans, players, management, ownership and whoever else plays a part in making this club run, even the Finch Farm mole (any rumours lad?).

So yeah, building the stadium put us on the brink, but now it puts us on the brink of a brighter future, and we have to fill this place with as much positivity as we can. Yes, there will be setbacks and low points, but when these things happen let’s not revert to type and go into full doom mongering mode. Take it on the chin and go again. Make the Hill Dickinson Stadium on the banks of the royal blue Mersey a place where away teams don’t want to come, and we can improve on every one of those stats that saw us close out Goodison.

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum has to mean something again, HDS is the first step in that.

COYB
UTFT