Season file
The First Season Scrapbook
A first season in a new stadium is judged twice. There is the table, cold and unforgiving. Then there is the scrapbook: first goal, first win, first bad queue, first night when the ground really shook, first moment when somebody said, yes, this might work.
Everton's first league memory at Hill Dickinson Stadium was a good one, and that matters more than neutrals will understand. A new home needs an emotional deposit. Brighton provided it: Ndiaye, Garner, Grealish, Pickford, three points.
But a season cannot live forever on its opening photograph. The deeper question is whether Everton built habits: starting quickly, making the ground loud, turning pressure into territory, and giving supporters reasons to arrive with belief rather than dread.
The stadium itself will have teething problems because every new ground does. Routes change, rituals change, people miss what they knew. Wins soften that. Dull football hardens it.
The scrapbook should stay honest. Celebrate the firsts, record the frustrations, and keep asking whether the new era is becoming a football advantage.
The first season should be remembered honestly, not polished into a brochure. There will be moments that felt grand and moments that felt awkward, because every new home has to learn its own habits in public.
What matters is whether the football started giving the stadium a personality. Grounds become intimidating through repeated evidence: early pressure, late winners, tackles that wake people up, opponents who look uncomfortable.
The scrapbook is only useful if it leaves room for judgement. The firsts are precious, but the second season must bring proof that Everton are building something more than a beautiful setting.