Everton fans got their first taste of the club's new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock when 10,000 supporters attended a test event featuring an Under-18s friendly against Wigan Athletic on Monday night.
The Toffees, who are leaving their Goodson Park home at the end of this season, are scheduled to kick off the 2025/26 Premier League season at the new 52,888-seater arena, which has taken four years to build.
It was Wigan's Harrison Rimmer who scored the first ever goal at Bramley-Moore Dock, before Cole Simms added a second for the visitors.
But roared on by the fans packed in the South Stand, substitute Ray Robert wrote his name into Everton's history books by scoring the club's first goal at their new home, winning and then converting a penalty with two minutes of the 90 remaining.
Although the result didn't go Everton's way on Monday, as they lost 2-1, it was the occasion rather than the scoreline that mattered the most to all concerned.
“It was a fantastic occasion for these boys. It was a fantastic occasion for the Academy, and everyone connected with this Football Club," said Everton U18s head coach Keith Southern, himself a former youth-team player at Goodison Park.
“It was a landmark event, in terms of the Club and the hope and positivity moving forward into a new future.
"[The stadium’s] incredible, it's iconic - the geography of it on the waterfront, but even looking beyond that, when you come inside, it's got a real feel about it.
“I think the worry for some fans possibly might have been, 'When you move away from Goodison, are you going to lose the atmosphere, the tightness from the stands to the pitch?' But whoever's designed it has done a fantastic job because the stands are on top of you.
“When this is full next season, it's going to be a hell of a place to play, and those players are going to be extremely fortunate to represent this football club in the Premier League here.”
