I fear that one ingredient of football which rose tinted specs might gloss over, but that has always been there, is the culture of 2 fingers up to the toffs.

In the first world war all the toffs became officers and got sent to their deaths.

So now the middle classes, and their (our) morality are the toffs, and in the mind of a footballer, footie day is their day to rule the roost.

Thongs are if anything improving from the days of organized football firms in the seventies that existed with the sole intention of bashing each other to the point of death and in some cases beyond that point.

Try and cut it out and it will become entrenched and resist you.

Don't get me wrong, when I see people that I would otherwise call my friends singing "no surrender to the IRA", I know they don't know what it means, and they know that they don't really unsderstand it too, but for the duration of the match, they don't want to know - they are celebrating their ignorance - wearing their class on their sleeve (even if they aren't of that class - and often the foootie is an excuse for the middle classes to act like idiots)

Girls go to the footie too, as do people of ethnic minorities.

In the latter case, this is often because, in the words of one famous black west ham supporter, the colour of his skin wasn't the issue - when he was with the firm he was "claret and blue".

I am not excusing or promoting bad behaviour, but I do think it is important to understand what it is and accept it rather than to demonize it, and also to recognize its progress and compare it to its darkest period in the seventies.

It has a lot to answer for, Lad and Ladette culture etc, but it represents a sector of society that was disenfranchised making its voice heard and its presence felt.

For the record, I don't have a team and I hate getting caught up amongst a crowd of footie fans on the rampage when they've had a few too many, especially when I have my daughter with me.

But I'm not going to be judgemental either.