Goodison Park will host senior men’s football for the first time since Everton’s departure, with Preston North End’s Carabao Cup first-round tie against Huddersfield Town relocated to L4 on Saturday, 8 August.
Deepdale is mid-installation of a new hybrid pitch, a project worth more than £1.5m, and Preston weren’t prepared to risk it before the surface has bedded in.
The EFL granted permission for the tie to move, with the pitch instead set to be ready for Preston’s first home league game against Wolves on 22 August. Huddersfield had asked for the game to be reverted to their own Accu Stadium instead; the EFL turned that down.
Kick-off is 3pm, with Preston yet to confirm ticket details. Goodison has been home to Everton’s Women’s side since last September, but this is something rarer: the first men’s cup fixture to be staged there as a neutral venue since Knowsley United hosted Carlisle in the 1993 FA Cup.
It’s a one-off, not something that’s likely to be repeated anytime soon, but it shows that the book on Goodison isn’t entirely closed as long as there’s a fully functioning football stadium at the end of Stanley Park. And Evertonians love nothing more than a lovely bit of nostalgia.
There’s a personal thread to it too. Huddersfield’s captain Ryan Ledson is a boyhood Evertonian who came through the Academy at Finch Farm — he’ll lead someone else’s team out at the ground he once dreamed of playing for.
Full ticketing details are due via Preston’s official channels shortly.
