As we all took to our seats around the Hawthorns on November 6th for West Brom’s game against Hull City, players stood sombre as a piper sounded The Last Post. Silence fell across the usually noisy and raucous crowd as we stopped, together, to pay our respects in remembrance. I bowed my head slightly and in doing so, I noticed two women a few rows in front of me comforting each other. They were both really emotional. It touched me deeply as I realised that, in this big collective act of remembering, they were having an experience that was incredibly personal. I imagined a lost son at war, or a recently passed dad who had served. These two fans, feeling held and seen in their grief by their community. As the silence ended, the players took the knee. The ground broke out in applause. We got on with what we all pretend we’re all there for, and watched some football. I’d watched my first live football match in far too long back in May 2021. Successive lockdowns really taught us that there ...