West Ham’s first game at London Stadium ended in a resounding victory as they saw off NK Domzale 3-0 on the night and 4-2 on aggregate to progress to the play-off round of the Europa League. Adam Bate was there to witness a special night for the club’s supporters…
"We approach this game like we do every other one," said Winston Reid on the eve of his team's Europa League tie with NK Domzale. Try telling that the West Ham supporters who made their way to London Stadium, the former Olympic Stadium, on Thursday.
Having said farewell to the Boleyn Ground in May, this was a night for new beginnings - a club record attendance and club record queues for the match-day programme too. It was an historic occasion to stir emotions, an occasion to remember, and the fans knew it.
They lingered longer than might usually be expected near the half-and-half scarf sellers. They got the phones out to take videos as well as selfies. Eyes were wide and spirits were high. And that was just the grown-ups.
Things will take time to settle down. "It doesn't feel like a home game," admitted Slaven Bilic in the build-up. Mark Noble summed up the mood. "It will be weird," explained the skipper. "But this is the future and if we want to move forward, this is what we have to do."
On the pitch, West Ham did what they had to do. Facing a 2-1 deficit from the first leg, that was soon wiped out by Cheikhou Kouyate's close-range effort and the midfielder stabbed home a second soon after to put the Hammers ahead. There were few scares after that.
New signing Sofiane Feghouli added a third late on to cap a 3-0 win, chesting the ball down and firing hard into the net. He left the field to a standing ovation soon after. "We are expecting big things from him," said Bilic afterwards. "He's a great player."
Michail Antonio also impressed with his tackling as well as his hard-running from deep. Reece Oxford settled in alongside Reid at the back, while Enner Valencia looked particularly dangerous on the left flank. Andy Carroll even connected with a scissor-kick volley.
If the players looked comfortable enough, West Ham as a club did all they could to ensure the same for supporters. The club's name is emblazoned from the side of the stands with larger than life images of Dimitri Payet and the rest staring back at the faithful.
Within the vast stadium itself, there are further reminders that these tenants are here for the long haul. It still says 'The Academy of Football' on the floor by the tunnel area and the familiar 1990s dance tracks provided the soundtrack once the fans enter the arena.
The lyrics to I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles adorn the exterior of London Stadium and the club's anthem provided perhaps the moment to remember, reverberating around the ground in the moments before the players emerged onto the pitch.
The topography of the stadium makes it difficult to sustain that sort of noise throughout and there were times when the crowd murmured rather than chanted. The wide open expanses around the sidelines are a far cry from the Chicken Run of old at Upton Park.
But this was not a night for complaints. Some might have been disconcerted by the change but all appeared excited by it too. There were 54,000 there to experience it on Thursday, an extraordinary attendance for the third qualifying round of the Europa League.
Domzale coach Luka Elsner admitted afterwards that the occasion had an impact on his team. "The impression of the whole event was big for us," he said. "We hoped we could manage it beforehand but we lack experience."
West Ham coped better, despite the uncertainty. "I was a bit, not worried, but I didn't know," said Bilic. "You heard people talking about the Olympic Games or the Rugby World Cup saying, 'I was at that game', well, I wasn't. This was the first time we could judge it and to be fair it was more than I expected.
"It was loud. You can hear them and you can feel them. There's no point comparing it to Upton Park, it's a completely different thing, but tonight it was a really good atmosphere. So I'm not afraid of the new stadium."
Credit to Bilic for managing his team and credit to that team for managing the occasion. Just as Reid had suggested, they did indeed approach it like every other game. But for every West Ham fan this night was a one-off. The club's bright future could well last rather longer.