On the evidence of Millwall first pre-season friendly against Sporting Lisbon, the stadium scores on sight lines and safety, but not on access. Getting to and from the seating decks is no problem, but access to the stadium by car and by public transport remains difficult.

The inaugural match was mainly attended by Millwall's own fans, most of whom live locally. But what will happen when Manchester United comes down to play in a cup match?

As  for the facilities, the stadium coped triumphantly with a near-capacity crowd. The ultimate test of a football stadium's toilets and refreshment outlets comes at half-time. At most stadiums  you are lucky if you get to use one of the two. At Millwall, you could easily use both.

Consequently, the concourses were relatively relaxed places in which to have a beer or a burger. And the crowd's accumulated urine stayed firmly in the urinals, where it belonged.

What the stadium doesn’t offer, by the architect Nick Parkinson's own admission, is any genuine design innovations - the design is, to use his words, 'tried and tested' .

Taken singly, any of its elements could be found on other stadia in the country. What is unusual is to find them applied so consistently throughout a

stadium. The result is a building that is robust, efficient and well adapted to its immediate purpose of staging league football.

And the game? Millwall lost 2:1 in a bad tempered affair that included a penalty and much mindless, off-the-ball provocation and retaliation. Amid all the change, its good to see some of the old traditions being maintained.