The beauty of football is that when your team scores, whatever the level or importance, it feels like you’ve just won the World Cup.
The singular moment of unadulterated primal ecstasy is why we trudge to football grounds around the country week in week out.
And we do – because if we’ve got anything to be proud of in this country, it’s the depth of our footballing obsession. Some of our lower league clubs boast attendances that La Liga or Serie A teams could only dream of.
Often a goal for a lesser light of English football can mean more than the latest Premier League howitzer. There are precious little glory supporters in the lower reaches of our game; everyone is there out of pure love and commitment.
On Saturday, Wycombe Wanderers secured a 1-1 draw with Dagenham & Redbridge, thanks to a last-minute equaliser from big defender Aaron Pierre.
But it was the celebration, rather than the drama of the goal that caught our eye. As the players ran towards the home support in unbridled rapture, a local ballboy could barely hide his excitement and joined in.
Without thinking he threw himself around Pierre’s neck in jubilation, and at once Pierre grasps the young lad like an excitable pup that had leapt to its owner.
It was a beautiful moment – that said everything about why football can be the greatest sport in the world.
