Moyes' Programme Notes For Visit Of Brentford

Welcome back to Hill Dickinson Stadium for the first match of 2026. It’s very difficult to know what day of the week it is at this time of year, but today we are all looking forward to a 3pm kick-off – on a Sunday!

I hope all you Evertonians had a very merry Christmas and enjoyable New Year celebrations.

Our last home game here was the Saturday before Christmas, which saw us lose narrowly to Arsenal. It was a tight game that, once again, threw up some controversial moments.
More recently we seem to be finding that we are on the wrong end of an increasing number of contentious decisions.

We also seem to be receiving really good reasons for those decisions not being given, some we’ve not heard before. We have no choice but to accept them and move on.

Even our recent away trip to Burnley saw a couple of decisions fail to go in our favour. Despite that, we still returned home with a point on a day when, I have to admit, we did not produce one of our better performances.

We had our usual excellent support on the road and I would also like to mention the great support we had last time we were here against Arsenal, too. The pre-match display organised by the 1878s supporters’ group helped contribute to a terrific atmosphere and long may that continue.

Your backing will play a big part in any success we have here. We need your voices and support in the good times and also in the bad moments.
Like every other club at this time of the season, injuries and suspensions are starting to hit hard. We have certainly had more than our fair share since the start of the season, and with AFCON thrown into the mix as well, it has left us a little short right now.

I always knew that this would be a difficult period for us due to having a relatively light squad but we hope that we will be able to pull it back together as the month of January goes on and players start to return.

Today we would like to welcome Keith Andrews and his Brentford squad to our new stadium for the first time. Keith has been doing a really good job since taking over from Thomas Frank in the summer. Brentford have been a progressive football club over many seasons now and, as a result, are a very well-established Premier League club.

This is our first game of 2026 in our new stadium. We have all been really excited about what Hill Dickinson Stadium has brought to the Club in the past few months. You supporters have been given the opportunity to enjoy fine seating, really good facilities and excellent hospitality – and my personal hope is that we will have something to celebrate here in the future.

I’m sure there are still many things we can do even better, both inside and outside the stadium, but considering we moved in only relatively recently I think the Club has done a great job at getting things under way. I hope Hill Dickinson Stadium proves a great addition to Everton Football Club in the years to come.

Because of the holiday deadlines I am writing these notes prior to our trip to Nottingham Forest, which was our second away game on the bounce.

The flip side of that is, starting today, we have three home games in the space of six days.

We all want a good start to 2026 and successive home matches, with your tremendous backing, gives us an opportunity to do just that.

The players have been working incredibly hard and showing great spirit, which is something they have done since the very first game of this season.

You getting behind them gives them so much encouragement to get even better. They really do thrive on the atmosphere inside the stadium.

So get behind them today and hopefully we can bring you the three points.