WEST HAM UNITED (London Stadium)

PREMIER LEAGUE, WEST HAM UNITED 0-0 EVERTON, ATTENDANCE: 56,971

Today I made my way to that there London and my first taste of West Ham United's new home at the London Stadium (née Olympic Stadium). As it was my first ever first visit to E20 I thought I would add my two penneth worth by doing a brief write up on my day out.

This is The Hammers' debut season at their new surroundings after leaving their beloved, and intimidating, Boleyn Ground after 112 years at the end of the 2015/16 season.

I made my way to Stratford, from Euston via underground to Highbury & Islington then overground to Hackney Wick. The ground is a fifteen minute walk from here but, naturally, I went via the excellent Howling Hops Tank Bar and it's equally good next door neighbour, The Crate Brewery.

The London Stadium was built as the centre piece for the 2012 London Olympic Games and was obviously designed primarily as an athletics venue. Part of the post games legacy was the use for future events, with the stadium being converted into a multi-purpose stadium capable of hosting football, athletics and other non-sporting events. 

There was a bidding process to become the tenants of the London Stadium and West Ham were awarded, controversially in some eyes, a 99 year lease. The official capacity for football is around 60,000 (down from the original 80,000 capacity) but the club have currently capped this at around 57,000, of which approx 50,000 are season ticket holders. 

From the outside the ground is aesthetically pleasing and inside the views are unobstructed, there is plenty of legroom in the seats and the facilities are decent (even if they did run out of pies at half time).

However with the stadium still being an athletics venue, this has meant the installation of retractable seats to cover over the running track, this has created a huge gap between the supporters in the lower tier and those in the upper tier.

Today I was in the upper tier behind the goal, close to the back of the stand, and it felt like I was miles away from the action. My eyes are not the best anyhow so it was not a good match watching experience at all. Also with that aforementioned gap, the atmosphere was seriously affected, not that there was much to excite. 

The game was utter, utter dross. The Toffees did not register a shot on target in the entire 90 minutes. West Ham did create a few half chances, so they will probably more disappointed with the draw, but the match was not a good advert for the so called best league in Europe.

Post match I was directed towards Stratford station and, despite my best attempts to find the Tap East which is somewhere in the adjacent Westfield Shopping Centre, I soon made my way back Euston for a couple of more beers (in the Euston Tap and Bree Louise) before catching my train home.

Overall an enjoyable day in the capital, from a social perspective, but from a football point of view I didn't think much of the ground as a viewing spectator. Hopefully any future developments may improve things.

If I was a West Ham fan though I would feel very disappointed having left the Boleyn Ground for this place but that's modern football I suppose and I would imagine I am in the minority. I won't, however, be in any rush to revisit the London Stadium.

Cheers!

STOKE CITY (bet365 Stadium)

PREMIER LEAGUE, STOKE CITY 1-1 EVERTON, ATTENDANCE: 27,671

With a couple of odd days holiday left to take, I decided to book a day off work and head to the warm sunny climes of the Potteries as Everton travelled down the M6 for a Premier League clash at Stoke City.

It was an uneventful journey to Staffordshire until I got within 5 miles of the stadium when an accident had brought the A500 to a standstill. The sat-nav advised that the quickest way now was to spin the car around and head back to the M6 and go to the next junction.

Eventually I was parked up by 6.45pm (at Longton Bowls Club) and a short walk over the footbridge over the A50 had me outside the ground around 7pm.

The ground, which opened in 1997 as a replacement for the Victoria Ground, has always been sponsored (though when Stoke qualified for Europe UEFA called it the Stoke Stadium) and from its inauguration until the beginning of this season it was known as the Britannia Stadium, after a local building society, but for the next six years, at least, it will be known as the bet365 Stadium.

The ground was officially opened by the legendary Sir Stanley Matthews and when he died in 2000 his ashes were buried beneath the centre circle. There is a statue in his honour outside the ground.

My last visit to the ground was in 2002 when Everton secured a 1-0 victory in an FA Cup 3rd round tie. The record attendance for the stadium were present that day as 28,218 packed in to watch Alan Stubbs score a 51st minute winner. This record will certainly be beaten next season when the capacity of ground is increased to around 30,000 when the open corners are filled in.

I had a great seat tonight (not that anyone sits down in the away end during the game) behind the goal, seven rows from the front. It was so close to the action that during the warm up a wayward shot hit me in a rather sensitive part of ones anatomy, much to the amusement of the people around me.

The blustery conditions were never going to be conducive to free flowing football and the home side used these to their advantage time and again. Veteran striker Peter Crouch won everything in the air as he gave the Everton back line a torrid time. It was Crouch who opened the scoring after 7 minutes when he fired home, unmarked, from 10 yards after a Marko Arnautovic cross. This was Crouch's 100th Premier League and to celebrate he reprised his famous robot dance.

Stoke had further chances to increase their lead but it was Everton who scored next, and in slightly controversial circumstances. In the 39th minute a Seamus Coleman shot was turned into his own goal by Ryan Shawcross but the linesman flagged an offside Romelu Lukaku, who appeared to get the final touch. After a brief consultation, the goal was awarded when it was confirmed Lukaku, who was offside, never touched the ball or impeded the goalkeeper's position or vision.

There was still time before the break for Stoke to restore their lead but Arnautovic, when one-on-one with Joel Robles, saw his effort blocked by the Spanish goalkeeper.

Everton made a tactical substitution at half time with James McCarthy replacing young Mason Holgate, who endured a tough time in the first half. The Irishman offered a little more protection and finally allowed Everton to get a foothold in the game. Stoke still had chances, Saido Berahino had an effort headed off by the line by Ramiro Funes Mori, but now at least Everton were getting forward.

It wasn't until the final 10 minutes that Lee Grant in the Stoke goal was properly tested. The best effort was a bullet header from Tom Davies, which was parried into the path of Ademola Lookman, whose effort was inches wide. That could have clinched all three points for the blues but a draw was a fair reflection of the game.

I was back at my car for around 10.20pm and away on the A500 by 10.25pm. Despite the M6 north being closed I was back in the house before midnight to reflect on the evenings events. Onward Evertonians.