The penultimate Premier League game at Goodison Park against already relegated Ipswich Town is set to be a celebratory bonanza for Supporters Day, with the 1878 Group pulling out all the stops to memorialise the Grand Old Lady for the fans especially as she nears the end.
A fantastic display of huge banners on all four sides of the old ground, plus an unprecedented ticker-tape cascade from the Top Balcony of the Main Stand, are among a range of displays planned to crystalize the memories before a more sombre and reflective mood is anticipated for the final game in a fortnight’s time.
This is the first meeting between the two on Merseyside in over 20 years, and it may well be the last for the foreseeable future, after Ipswich had their relegation confirmed last weekend.
But it comes at a time when Everton’s results are approaching relegation form after the ultimate demise of David Moyes’s “new manager bounce” that he finally admitted last week had saved them from dreaded drop at the worst possible time in their long history.
Moyes’s men have now won just one of their last nine Premier League matches and, after losing to Manchester City in their previous game at Goodison, with the boss keen to avoid setting an unwanted trend of three losses in a row.
Everton will have Armando Broja back after he was ineligible against his parent club last weekend, while Dominic Calvert-Lewin has also returned to full training after a lengthy layoff.
James Tarkowski’s season is over after he sustained a hamstring injury against Man City, and following Michael Keane’s horror show off the bench, Jake O’Brien was moved into a central role, after impressing at right-back recently.
Orel Mangala and Jesper Lindstrom have most likely played their last games for the club, while Dwight McNeil is being eased back into first-team action after knee surgery earlier this year, and could start on the bench again.
Ipswich could be without as many as 11 players for this trip to Merseyside, with Johnson joining fellow full-back Leif Davis in being suspended after his red card a week ago.
Former Everton youth graduate Nathan Broadhead is set to miss out with a hamstring injury, and the same issue will keep Conor Townsend and Axel Tuanzebe out at the back.
Kalvin Phillips is also set to miss out, while attacking trio Jaden Philogene, Wes Burns and Sammie Szmodics are also struggling with injury at present.
And one player coming to Goodison Park with Ipswich Town for the last time is Nathan Broadhead, who joined Everton from Wrexham as a 10-year-old and made his way through the age groups. He was handed his debut in a 3-0 Europa League win at Cypriot side Apollon Limassol in December 2017 when he was aged 19.
He was given a Premier League bow under Carlo Ancelotti during a 0-0 draw at Brighton in April 2021. After loan spells at Sunderland and Wigan Athletic, Ipswich paid £1.5M to sign the promising Everton youngster, who’s become more of a regular in the side for the second half of their ill-fated Premier League campaign, albeit scoring just the one goal in a rare win over Bournemouth last month.
Kick-Off: 3:00 pm Saturday, 3 May 2025
Referee: Lewis Smith.
Assistants: Nick Hopton, Marc Perry.
Fourth official: Anthony Taylor.
Video Assistant Referee: Paul Tierney.
Assistant VAR: Eddie Smart.