It isn’t just another fixture on the Women’s Super League calendar. Sunday afternoon, 14:30 BST, the first whistle at Goodison Park will echo like a battle cry across English football.
Everton Women versus Tottenham Hotspur Women — a match that would normally sit somewhere in the WSL’s mid-table narrative — now carries the weight of history, symbolism, and a new frontier for the women’s game.
Because Goodison Park is no longer just a nostalgic old ground clinging to memory. It has been reborn, rebranded, and rededicated. On Sunday, it officially becomes the permanent home of Everton Women, the largest dedicated women’s football stadium in England. A cathedral of football that once housed Dixie Dean’s legend will now be claimed by Ornella Vignola, Kenzie Weir, Maz Pacheco, and the generation tasked with writing Everton’s new story.
This is not just about points on the table. This is about inheritance, identity, and making history in real time.
Goodison Park: The Heartbeat of Belonging – “It’s Ours”
For Kenzie Weir, Sunday isn’t a debut, it’s destiny fulfilled. Daughter of former Everton men’s stalwart David Weir, she grew up on the Goodison turf, a child wide-eyed under the blue glow of the Gwladys Street. Now, wearing the crest, she’ll walk that pitch with her own team. Her words carry the weight of generations:
“It’s ours.”
Simple, defiant, loaded. Everton Women have inherited a shrine. They know the responsibility. As Weir put it, “It’s our job to take on that task and give them more history.”
Head coach Brian Sorensen is just as blunt: Goodison is a “magic place,” and he won’t allow his team to treat it like just another ground. “We are inheriting something historical,” he warns, “and we need to make sure we play with a lot of pride.”
And pride is dripping from every player’s veins. Maz Pacheco, Skelmersdale-born and bred, remembers her grassroots club rocking up to Goodison in blue wigs, staring down at the emerald pitch from the top tier in awe. Now she’s in blue for real, and she calls it a full-circle moment:
“Now, it is time to write our names in the history books.”
Goodison, threatened with demolition under Moshiri, has been rescued by the Friedkin Group and repurposed as the cornerstone of Everton Women’s project. They’ve stripped it, modernised it, polished it — but crucially, left its soul intact. CEO Hannah Forshaw puts it best:
“This is not just bricks and mortar. That’s a stadium with a soul that means a lot to a lot of people.”
On Sunday, that soul belongs to the women.
Everton Rising – From Anfield Hat-Tricks to Goodison Glory
Everton’s rebirth isn’t just symbolic — it’s already tangible on the pitch. Opening day, Anfield, their fiercest rivals Liverpool in red, and Everton tore them to shreds.
Enter Ornella Vignola, a 20-year-old Spanish forward who decided her debut would be historic. A hat-trick at Anfield. Let’s repeat that: no Everton player, male or female, had scored a hat-trick against Liverpool since Dixie Dean in 1931.
For context, this she was a bit part player in Liga F. Now she’s tearing apart the WSL.
Now a 94-year drought is over, broken not by a grizzled Scouser but by a fearless Spaniard who’s only just unpacked her bags in Merseyside.
Vignola’s emotions spilled out after the 4-1 win:
“I’m glad they enjoyed the match. I promise to give them many more moments of happiness.”
If she scores again on Sunday, she could equal or break Rachel Williams’ WSL record of five goals in her first two league matches. That subplot alone gives this fixture electricity.
And it wasn’t just Vignola. Maz Pacheco delivered two assists, Katja Snoeijs bullied her way to yet another derby goal, and Martina Fernandez looked like the spine of a side that finally has steel. Everton, usually sluggish starters in the WSL, roared out of the gate.
There is a sense — whispered in the Gwladys Street, shouted in the Park End Fan Zone — that something is happening here. Everton Women, forgotten for years, are waking up.
Tottenham Hotspur – Building Belief, One Brick at a Time
And yet, across the dugout on Sunday, Martin Ho is plotting an ambush.
Ho knows Goodison. It’s where he began as a fresh-faced coach, working his way up from the academy. He calls Everton formative, and he remains close friends with Sorensen. But friendship ends when the whistle blows. Spurs arrive with their own redemption arc.
For nine months, Tottenham Women couldn’t buy a win. January to September 2025 was purgatory. That drought ended last week in a London derby against West Ham — Bethany England burying a late penalty to deliver the kind of cathartic release a whole squad needed.
Ho’s philosophy is simple: mentality first, tactics second. “Eighty percent of it was building confidence,” he said. The clean sheet was what truly thrilled him — Spurs’ first since January. Lize Kop’s saves, defenders throwing themselves into tackles, young prodigy Toko Koga completing 90+ passes like a seasoned pro.
Ho’s Spurs are raw, still brittle in attack (six shots, one on target versus West Ham), but they’ve rediscovered bite. Beth England remains their talisman, a captain who relishes pressure — “a privilege,” as she puts it. Beside her, the new blood is promising: Koga, Araya Dennis, and maybe Cathinka Tandberg, a physical striker with a chip on her shoulder and a childhood dream to play in Spurs white.
Kit Graham’s return from an ACL injury adds another emotional thread. Spurs aren’t polished, but they’re no longer paralysed.
Everton v Spurs: Head-to-Head – Unfinished Business
History leans Tottenham’s way. They’re unbeaten in their last four against Everton (W1, D3). Beth England has already punished the Toffees twice, including in last December’s controversial 2-1 win.
But geography twists the knife differently. Spurs have never beaten Everton away in the WSL. Walton Hall Park has been a fortress. Goodison is a coliseum. The Toffees have only one win from five women’s games there, but this one feels different.
Last May, their 1-1 draw capped a forgettable season for both. This September, it feels like a launchpad.
The Tactical Battleground
Brian Sorensen has built Everton around flexibility and intensity. Against Liverpool he rolled a 4-3-2-1 that morphed into a 4-2-2, pressing high, demanding ferocity off the ball. Vignola stretches defences, Snoeijs occupies centre-backs, and Pacheco bombs forward with glee.
Martin Ho’s Spurs? A defensive shell trying to become an attacking unit. He wants them braver, more expressive, but for now their bedrock is resilience. Expect them to clog the channels, defend forward, and try to spring England and (if fit) Tandberg on the break.
The pressure of Goodison — nearly 40,000 voices, a historic rebirth — is a double-edged sword. Kenzie Weir believes the crowd will drive Everton to soar. Ho sees the opposite: a stage too big, a pressure too heavy. “It can add in our favour,” he admits, if Everton tighten up under the glare.
It’s fire against steel, energy against resilience, spectacle against stoicism.
Subplots & Human Angles
This game is dripping with narrative side-stories:
The Managers’ Friendship: Sorensen and Ho, good friends off the pitch, locking horns on it. Who blinks first?
Rollercoaster Spirits: Everton’s squad literally rode Denmark’s fastest rollercoaster this summer. They came off laughing, sick, exhilarated — the perfect metaphor for this emotional ride.
Investment as Revolution: The Friedkin Group’s gamble to hand Goodison to the women is a statement to the whole WSL: the old boys’ stadiums are no longer untouchable.
Fans as Architects: From blue wigs in childhood to alcohol trials in the stands, the fan experience is now central. This isn’t just football — it’s community being rebuilt in real time.
Prediction – A Day Written in History
The bookies call it even. The pundits call it cagey. But history demands drama. Everton, fuelled by Vignola’s fire and Goodison’s roar, look too sharp to be contained. Tottenham will scrap, England will threaten, and Koga may yet be a revelation — but the moment feels destined.
Vignola again on the scoresheet. The crowd in full cry. A new era beginning not with hesitation, but with thunder.
Final Word
When the players walk out on Sunday, they’ll feel the ghosts. Dixie Dean, Howard Kendall, Neville Southall — the men who built Goodison’s legend. But this is no longer their house alone. This is the women’s stage now.
And as Ornella Vignola sprints down the channel, as Beth England sizes up her next penalty, as Kenzie Weir whispers to herself “it’s ours” — Goodison Park will tremble with something rare in football: history in the making.
How to Watch Everton Women v Tottenham Hotspur Women
If you’re wondering how to watch Everton today, this Women’s Super League clash between Everton Women and Tottenham Hotspur Women is being shown live in the UK across multiple free-to-air platforms.
BBC Red Button
BBC iPlayer
BBC Sport Website
All three options let you watch football online completely free, as long as you hold a valid UK TV licence. For those asking how to watch football live on phone free, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport app make it easy to stream the action straight from your mobile device.
Of course, nothing beats being there in person. Fans can still buy a ticket to the match and watch it unfold live at Goodison Park in Liverpool, as Everton Women step out at the historic ground.
For more Everton news, updates on upcoming Everton fixtures, and the latest on Everton F.C. games, keep an eye on official club channels and BBC Sport.
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