As a new era began at Goodison Park, any Everton women’s fans hoping to see a great goal join the long list of iconic strikes scored across 133 years of this famous ground’s history were indeed provided with a memorable one. The problem for the hosts was, it was scored by a Tottenham player.
When Cathinka Tandberg spotted Courtney Brosnan off her line, as she received the ball 35 yards out, she did not hesitate to attempt the lob, and she would spoil the party for Everton in their first competitive match since making Goodison Park their permanent home. Her first-time strike dropped perfectly and capped off a thoroughly impressive away performance for the north London club, who made it two victories out of two so far under their new head coach, Martin Ho.
That ambitious effort, four minutes into the second half, came after Olga Ahtinen had slotted Tottenham in front 27 minutes into a first half they controlled, with Everton unable to click into gear. Ahtinen’s opener came after she won the ball on the edge of the area, played a one-two with Tandberg and slotted low past Brosnan.
Both goals came from Tottenham pressing with intensity, as Bethany England similarly tackled Rion Ishikawa before laying the ball off for Tandberg’s long-range lob, on the Norway striker’s first start since her deadline-day move from the Swedish side Hammarby.
“She did it in training this week,” Ho said of Tandberg. “The courage to do that and the risk-taking to do that is big and that’s what she’s built on. Overall, her performance was brilliant.”
New signage outside Goodison Park. Photograph: John Clifton/Action Images/Reuters
The former England striker Ellen White labelled the strike “absolutely ridiculous” on the BBC’s live television coverage and Tandberg told the broadcaster: “I did it in my last club. You just have to go for it, and when you score that, it’s unbelievable. When I get those moments I have to do what I like and that’s scoring goals, so ‘go for it’.”
It was also a second consecutive clean sheet for Tottenham, whereas for Everton the result brought them back down to earth somewhat, after their hugely positive victory away at Anfield. This game was still historic for them, though. They were backed by 6,473 at Goodison, an attendance which is nearly three times the maximum capacity of their former home, Walton Hall Park.
In the stands there were some signs of “the grand old lady” having been vacated recently by Everton’s men’s team, not least the many hundreds of seats that have been removed, but in general the venue looked very smart. The rebrand around the exterior has been impressive; a timeline of the women’s team’s history is now found proudly along Goodison Road, while along Walton Road, a series of new banners display the “Everton Women” name and say: “A history we own; a future we are making.” Another simply reads: “Goodison Park, the home of Everton Women.”
Despite heavy pre-match rain, the atmosphere was encouraging and the home fans, backed by a drummer, sang old classics such as Spirit of the Blues.
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“The club has done a magnificent job,” the Everton manager, Brian Sorensen, said. It looks like our home and it looks good, so I’m happy for women’s football in this part of England, that we have a platform like this. Of course, we want to do better. I don’t know if it was the occasion. But it’s on me to make sure they’re 100% ready, and they weren’t.”
Ho, formerly a player at Everton’s boys academy himself before later working as the assistant coach of Everton Women between 2015 and 2018, labelled the stadium as beautiful, saying: “Coming back here was an unbelievable feeling. As soon as you come in here, you do feel intimidated because the stadium is quite enclosed. And that’s one thing I said to the players before the game, was ‘we have to expect it to be a bit hostile’, and I thought the fans were brilliant.”
Everton’s best moments featuring Ruby Mace having a deflected shot saved and Rosa van Gool curling over, but Tottenham had the better chances by far with Tandberg sliding wide in the first half, England heading wide in the second and Drew Spence forcing Brosnan into a smart, late save. Tottenham are one of four teams with a 100% winning start.
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