Grounds for a place in history

HISTORIAN Simon Inglis, in his book 'Football Grounds of Britain', observes that clubs often achieve prominence by luck rather than design, while the very being of some has been determined by ground developments.

- Ken Rogers

He was specifically referring to Everton and their historic 1892 Goodison Park home, stating that the Mersey Blues can rightly claim to have built England's first major football ground, with many firsts along the way.

Wolves opened Molineux three years earlier, but it was relatively basic, as was Newcastle's St James' Park. The only British grounds as advanced as Goodison were Rangers' Ibrox (1887) and Celtic's Parkhead (1892).

Contemporary sports magazine 'Out of Doors' declared: 'Behold Goodison Park! No single picture can take in the entire scene the ground presents, it is so magnificently large, for it rivals even the great American baseball pitches. Taking it all together, it appears to be one of the finest and most complete grounds in the kingdom.

I was extremely proud in 1992 when I was commissioned to write the official centenary history of Goodison, not least because Evertonians know their heritage very well and sing about it in a famous battle hymn. Of course, ground development has taken on a whole new meaning these days as clubs reach for the skies.