The beginning of a new era at Windsor Park

There were stars from sports other than football, such as Mary Peters and Dennis Taylor.

Carl Frampton was there too, as was Rory McIlroy – two young men who are not just local greats but global ones.

There were entertainment names, including James Nesbitt and Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol and Colin Murray.

And then there were the Northern Ireland players themselves, past and present.

Among the past luminaries to turn up for the inauguration of the new national stadium were Harry Gregg and Pat Jennings and Gerry Armstrong.

Windsor Park now has a capacity of only 18,600 seats, which is about a third of the largest ever number of people to have attended a football game in the site, back in the days when thousands of fans would cram into the terraces – something that would be forbidden now in any British stadium on safety grounds.

But the new maximum crowd number is nonetheless significantly higher than it has been at the much-loved stadium for most of recent decades, when for one reason or another parts of Windsor Park were out of action or being redeveloped or for some other reason operating below traditional capacity.

The new national stadium, which cost £30 million, was full of fans for Saturday’s celebratory evening – one that was capped with a thumping 4-0 defeat of San Marino.

There are many rich memories from Windsor Park, stretching back more than a century – not just for Northern Ireland but for Linfield FC too.

The stadium opened more than a century ago, before the First World War. Saturday’s star studded evening was the beginning of big new chapter.