Everton fan groups make special plans for Manchester United clash | OneFootball

Everton fan groups are making a special plan to improve the atmosphere at Hill Dickinson Stadium when Manchester United visit on Monday.

The Blues have endured a rough patch at home lately and haven’t won at their recent waterfront venue since December 6. They’ve lost and drawn three games each since, with Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth inflicting a 2-1 loss in their most recent encounter.

In the 13 league matches that Everton have played at this ground since moving from Goodison Park last summer, the Toffees have recorded four wins, four draws and five losses. This stands in stark contrast to their impressive record on the road where they have six wins, three draws and four defeats.

In order to boost the atmosphere at the stadium and provide David Moyes and his players added impetus, Everton Supporter Group the 1878s are planning to unfurl more than 400 banners before kick-off, decking out of the ground's south stand.

They are hoping to outperform similar demonstrations done before the clashes against Arsenal and Leeds United, both games where the hosts failed to win.

An army of volunteers have been gathered to lay the flags out over the weekend. Fans in the south stand will be asked to wave any flags they find on their seats once the club begin songs over the PA system around 15 minutes before kick-off.

Katie Carter, a leading figure of the 1878s, hopes that the display will help the players secure the double over Manchester United, having won 1-0 at Old Trafford in impressive fashion.

"It's one of the steepest stands in Europe, it can be intimidating if we make it that way, so let's decorate it with flags and let's fill it with noise and get it going,” she told Liverpool ECHO.

"Monday night is the perfect opportunity for that. Whether you know the person next to you or you don't, sing along with them, like get right behind them - make sure that everyone is stood-up, all singing and getting that atmosphere going in that ground.

"We've got it all there, ready, waiting for us. The stand itself is set up ready. We just need to make it feel like a cauldron of noise to help the players on the pitch."

Reader Comments (8)

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Love that last comment.

You would see a change in atmosphere at our new stadium if we had decent kick-off times. These late kick-offs, Mondays and Sundays, are killing us off, I can't stand it.

Bring back the days of a meet-up before and after a Saturday afternoon game. But I think they're gone, to be honest.

Brian Harrison 3 Posted 21/02/2026 at 10:35:20

The 1878 Group do a fabulous job of decking out the ground in flags and banners.

There have been times that the Hill Dickinson Stadium has resembled the bear pit only Goodison could generate, every visiting manager always commented on the atmosphere inside Goodison.

Like most clubs who move stadium, it takes a few years for it to feel like home. You have been used to sitting around the same group of fans for years and now you are surrounded by new faces, which probably inhibits the atmosphere a little.

Always a special game against Man Utd, I can remember going to Old Trafford while still at school, they played the brilliant Real Madrid in a friendly. Both teams were packed with talent, Real had Di Stefano, Ghento, Suarez and Santa Maria. Man Utd had Best, Law, Charlton and Crerand.

Seems nowadays you can't talk in glowing terms about great players who don't play for your own club.

Brian @3:

I think you are right that it takes a few years for a new stadium to feel like home. Of course, a better record will shorten that time but the atmosphere, style of play and results are, of course, interlinked.

But to see the fantastic 1878 Group working to improve the atmosphere is so great to see. As someone who can no longer get to games, the atmosphere can still reach me and others on TW through any way we can find to watch the game.

Agree with Katie that the infrastructure of the ground is all there, so it is up to creating a partnership between the fans, the manager and the players. Maybe that may attract the owners to pop over too!

But, looking at other clubs with new stadiums, it doesn't happen immediately (though in the modern game, we demand and expect immediacy and maybe we always have) but I am confident we will make BMD a ground opponents don't like visiting quicker than others have.

Stepping back from the daily Moyes good/bad debate and immediate transfer rumours, I remain optimistic.

Tony Abrahams 6 Posted 21/02/2026 at 13:18:22

I've seen Goodison Park in every single kind of mode, Brian. Happy, sad, snarling, mad, passionate and loud, or sometimes you could hear a pin drop in the crowd.

I remember the Crystal Palace manager commenting that Goodison was hardly intimidating during the 1994 season, then remember how the crazy gang of Wimbledon couldn't wait to get off the pitch when we finally survived on the very last day of that horrible season.

When it really matters, you will always be able to count on the Everton crowd. But, if we are not playing aggressively, not showing enough desire or positivity, or not playing on the front foot, then you aren't going to hear much from Evertonians, except groans, moans and language in bad tones.

But once the team starts having a proper go, the people always come alive.

Eric Myles 8 Posted 23/02/2026 at 03:27:50

It's likely the logistics of the season ticket system that has screwed with the atmosphere.

The Gwladys Street End and other pockets of the ground are now spread over different parts of the new ground.