As my bus trundled into Sheffield town centre around 6:15pm, it was clear there was an extra element to the usual Saturday night fever along West Street as, alongside the regulars were dotted large pockets of yellow and orange as supporters of both Sweden and the Netherlands enjoyed the sunshine, the fanzone and the bars ahead of their Women's Euros opener at Bramall Lane.
Me, my son and his friend got off the bus, as it became bogged down in traffic, and walked down to the ground, the atmosphere building as we got ever closer.
There has been plenty of discussion as to whether the choice of venues for the tournament has been ambitious enough, and also whether the geographical spread is right but the counter-argument has been that local authority buy-in and a willingness from clubs themselves was needed and that was evident on that walk to the ground, from the road closures to the volunteers to the signage and branding that had transformed Sheffield United's ground.
Our choice of who to support was going to be dictated by which fans we were sitting alongside and as we first turned into John Street it seemed as though Holland would be our team as we walked into an orange mass but a couple of turnstiles further on we went and it turned out that our seats were in amongst the Swedish contingent.
Having been persuaded that the kids really needed a couple of big, foam, pointing hands from the official merchandise stall, we settled down to an entertaining game and constant support from the Swedes towards their team, chants we didn't understand but joined in all the same, as they had the better of the first-half and took a lead into the interval before the Dutch came back strongly to earn a share of the spoils that both sides will probably be happy enough with as a tournament opener.
At £30 for the three of us I felt it was good value and a real occasion to remember, perhaps the 8pm kick-off would have put off a few with younger children but very enjoyable all the same for a record crowd for a game not involving a host nation at a Women's Euros.
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