It is a strange paradox that while the grief of football fans (and it is real grief) is private - we each have an individual relationship with our clubs, and I think that we are secretly convinced that none of the other fans understands quite why we have been harder hit than anyone else - we are forced to mourn in public, surrounded by people whose hurt is expressed in forms different from our own.

Fever Pitch (ed. Penguin UK, 2005) - ISBN: 9780141926544