“It’s always foggy up here” observed one Orient fan surveying the ethereal mist hanging over Meadow Lane, home of Notts County.
The weather may have been murky, but there is a certain clarity and purity to an old fashioned sounding fixture like Notts County v Leyton Orient; Wednesday evening, KO 7.45pm.
With both sides comfortable in the mid table but unlikely to make the play offs, the stakes couldn’t have been lower.
None the less, 177 Orient supporters made the trip to Nottingham; a city surrounded by large power stations with impressive cooling towers and small towns with names like Coalville.
As St John famously said: “greater love hath no man than this, that a man travel may travel to the north or midlands and support his team in a league game of little consequence on a chilly evening in early March.”
Taking my seat among the away fans, my neighbours began to chant:
“I want to go home, I want to go home, Notts is a sh*thole, I want to go home”.
Hard to know which set of fans that joke’s on.
Robbie Williams’ “Let me entertain you”, blared around the ground before kick off, proved a misleading omen as the match lurched to a forgettable 1-1 draw.
A common misconception about lower league football though, is that it’s about the result.
In reality, being a dedicated fan of Leyton Orient, or indeed any other similar club, is about belonging to an old fashioned, combative and deeply un-PC community.
For most of human history, this type of social group has been the norm, particularly among men.
In the twenty first century Britain though, lower league football is one of the only places where this tribal identity carries on.
If Manchester United v Real Madrid earlier this week was a showcase of controversy, skill and continental sophistication, then Leyton Orient v Notts County was a demonstration of simplicity, banality and graft.
Both, technically, are playing the same but the gulf between Old Trafford and Meadow Lane is enormous.
Magnanimous in victory, Jose Mourinho (the Madrid manager) claimed the better side lost. Meanwhile, Orient fans who hadn’t gone inside for a half time pie booed the local woman taking a penalty kick in aid of Macmillan Cancer Research.
Quite right too.
