It must be love if you’re happy to play in these conditions. Welcome to the Southern Sunday Football League

Barring the girlfriend of a player, no one was watching the game, the rain was lashing down on a drearily dark afternoon, the pitch was a few glasses of water short of a bog and the goal net was held in place by twigs, which had been used as substitutes for missing pegs.

This isn’t the glamorous football that millions of people have familiarised themselves with on TV thanks to Sky Sports extensive coverage of the game, this is something entirely different. This is Gun Show vs. Sporting Club Balham in the Fourth Division of the Southern Sunday Football League.

There were no comfortable seats from which to watch the game, just a muddy surrounding area and there was no protection from the unrelenting rain. Welcome to Clapham Common and it’s a million miles away from the comfort of the Premier League.

The game itself was dominated by the squelching of the ground underfoot, as players initially struggled to adapt to the swamp like conditions and at times the play resembled a rugby scrum, with players doing their best to hide the colours of their team by covering themselves in mud.

With players often running past the ball as it remained stubbornly in the thick earth the game became a test of endurance and determination, as the teams fought to overcome the English winter weather.

At first glance this could be considered a horrible scenario that no one should put themselves through, but on closer inspection and with the benefit of the same feeling towards the game, I understood that this was a genuine expression of love.

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