'All I wanted was to play for Everton and play at Goodison'

Everton will bid farewell to Goodison Park – their home since 1892 – at the end of the season to move to a new home at Bramley-Moore Dock.

Sunday's Premier League meeting with Southampton will be the final men's senior game at their historic home of 133 years.

Goodison will become the new home for Everton's women's team, who will be looking to create memories of their own at the famous old stadium.

But for the men's side, Sunday's fixture will mark the end of an era.

Everton has strong links with Wales, from players who have worn the famous royal blue shirt to the fans who travel to Goodison Park for matchdays.

Two former Wales and Everton captains, Kevin Ratcliffe and Barry Horne, were boyhood Evertonians who grew up in north Wales.

Here, in their own words, they share their Goodison Park memories on a visit to the famous old stadium with BBC Sport Wales.

'This place will be missed'

Kevin Ratcliffe (left) celebrates Everton's First Division title win with Wales team-mate Neville Southall at Goodison Park in May 1985

Ratcliffe is the most successful captain in Everton's history.

He skippered the Toffees to the First Division title in 1985 and 1987, the FA Cup in 1984 and the 1985 European Cup Winners' Cup, all of which were won under manager Howard Kendall.

Former defender Ratcliffe made his senior Everton debut in 1980, the first of 493 appearances for the club.

This is his Goodison story.

"There was only one thing I wanted to do and that was to play football for Everton Football Club and play at Goodison.

"My family were all Evertonians. I was in the process of maybe signing for Chester and then Everton came in and that's it – you're going to sign for Everton aren't you?

"Even though there were certain promises at Chester, that I'd be in the team before I was 17, I just felt I had a better opportunity at Everton and wanted to go from the Boys' Pen to be playing on the pitch.

"That was my dream – but not in my wildest dreams did I think I was going to be captain of them and winning things. That was just an added extra.

"Billy Bingham was the manager who signed me as a schoolboy and it was Gordon Lee who gave me my chance.

"But I didn't start playing regular until Howard Kendall came to the club.

"Everton was so far away from it – a bit similar to these days – but it just seemed to happen like that and everything clicked into place and on we went."

Everton 's 1987 Championship winning squad at Goodison

"There was a third-round League Cup tie against Coventry City. Howard was under pressure and he wasn't going to last until the morning had we lost that night.

"We scraped through an awful game and won 2-1 and it seems from that moment onwards it was a rollercoaster ride for the next four or five years.

"I remember playing Manchester United here in October 1984. Manchester United had got off to a flyer that season and they were on about winning the league.

"But Howard, like many a manager in the past, said the league doesn't get won after 10 games played.

"We beat them 5-0 and they were lucky as we should have beaten them eight or nine.

"It was one of those days that every single player was on top of his game and they (United) had a decent side.

"That was one of my favourite games here.

Everton beat German giants Bayern Munich 3-1 in the second leg of the European Cup Winners Cup semi-final in a famous night at Goodison in April 1985

"The Bayern Munich game [in the 1985 Cup Winners Cup semi-final second leg] will take a lot of beating. The atmosphere here was just unreal, absolutely unreal.

"Getting to the ground and coming round the Bullens Road we couldn't get down there – the bus was rocking.

"We literally got into the ground 45 minutes before the game because the streets were lined with fans – it was pay on the gate in those days.

"It was a proper game of football, tackles going in everywhere but football being played as well.

"A few years ago Lothar Matthaus was interviewed and they asked him about the game and he said Everton were the fittest side he'd ever played.

"I think that was a big compliment even though we thought we didn't train that hard – that must have been how much we were loving it.

"Coming close, I watched a game here when they played Manchester United and Duncan Ferguson scored and that was the nearest I've seen the atmosphere.

"The other one I would say is when Wayne Rooney scored that goal against Arsenal.

"The atmosphere after the game, where people just stood in this ground looking and knowing they'd seen something special – and not just in a goal but as in a player as well.

"You look at this place and it is an arena – you're going into battle.

"Night time games and the atmosphere here is unbelievable... and the fans make it that.

"I always thought when I played here at night that I never got tired – that's the difference between a daytime game and a night game with the atmosphere.

"Sometimes it zaps energy out of people but for me I thought it got me going and going.

"It's a typical old ground and it's needed upgrading – going to the new stadium is going to be absolutely fantastic.

"But this place will be missed – there's no doubt about it. And the one thing that will be missed is the atmosphere."

'We'll all be sad but it feels right'

Barry Horne in action for Everton against Manchester United at Goodison Park during the inaugural Premier League season in 1992-93

Midfielder Barry Horne joined Everton from Southampton in the summer of 1992 for £700,000.

St Asaph-born Horne made 123 league appearances for Everton and scored three goals, the most crucial coming against Wimbledon in 1994.

A key member of the last Everton team to win a major trophy – the FA Cup in 1995 – Horne left the club a year later and would later become chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association.

These are his Goodison memories.

"It did take me a little while to get here – Rhyl, Wrexham, Portsmouth, Southampton – but I got here in the end.

"All I wanted to do throughout my career was to get better and play at the very highest level that I possibly could, wherever that might be.

"It just so happened that I got the chance to come here and that was the pinnacle of my career – that move and my time spent here.

"I had two-and-a-half fabulous years at Southampton under the manager Chris Nicholl, then there was a change of manager and I was coming to the end of my contract and I wasn't going to stay.

"I had a choice between Spurs and Everton, but it wasn't even a choice.

"Once Howard Kendall spoke with me, there wasn't a choice and I signed within a couple of days.

"I scored Everton's first goal in the Premier League and that's something that will always be true.

"It was against a very good Sheffield Wednesday team and the interesting thing about that day is that of the starting 22 players, 18 were English.

"Me and Nev were two of the non-English people. That's an indication of how times have changed.

"There was the Wimbledon game and the season of struggle and that's not something anyone can be proud of.

"Ultimately we were part of the problem as the players that had put ourselves in that position.

"I can't even imagine had we gone down – everything would have been so different.

"I'm not proud, but pleased, that we survived that day and my part in that day. It was relief rather than joy.

Barry Horne scores against Wimbledon in May 1994, when the Toffees came from 2-0 down to win 3-2 and preserve their Premier League status on the final day of the season at Goodison Park

"Under Joe Royle we had a great team.

"We were beating all the top teams home and away and we won the FA Cup.

"We beat Newcastle here – Dave Watson scored in the Gwladys Street end and they were flying at the time.

"We went to Elland Road and played the game of our lives to destroy a very much fancied Spurs team and then we beat an amazing Manchester United team in the final.

Barry Horne (left) holds the FA Cup along with goalscorer Paul Rideout and Graham Stuart following Everton's 1-0 win over Manchester United at Wembley in May 1995

"We won the FA Cup and as great as a the club is, they've only done that a handful of times and I was part of one of the teams that did it.

"I'm very proud to have to have played and been a part of the club's history – a magnificent history.

"There's constant video compilations and goal compilations specifically about this place and you realise the history and some of the nights in particular.

"For many, many years I was dead set against moving from Goodison but as time has gone on you realise it's tired.

"It's been a magnificent stadium – it's had the World Cup here – but it's had it's time. We'll all be sad but it feels right.

"I've been to the new stadium – I went to one of the test events – and it's going to be absolutely sensational."