Sleek new home feels like the right place to harness supporters' new optimism

As the old song goes, Everton are a football club that know well their history. But now, finally, the future is here.

- Aaron Sharp

If Goodison Park was a temple to Everton's rich and storied past, Hill Dickinson Stadium represents something long desired for the future, a great leap forward in their ambition to host a world-class football team.

In truth, it is much needed. Proud though Evertonians are of their club's sleeping-giant status, the club have too long traded on the former glories chronicled in songs of the Gwladys Street end.

Here, on a sun-drenched afternoon on the banks of the River Mersey, change and optimism was the tune of the day - and the architect Dan Meis's 52,000-seat stadium, a sleek, stylish construction of glass and steel feels like the right place to harness that spirit.

It is a long time to spend in one place, 133 years. Perhaps it was the sheer newness of it all that had fans ambling at half speed, seemingly awestruck up Regent Road, the site of their new ground, stopping for family selfies and to take videos for social media.

More likely it was the stadium itself, which seems to rise out of the river when approached from the nearby Eldonian Village estate, that gave early arrivals their moment for pause.