Fans on right side of fight

THE running total is rising quicker than the Premier League scoring tallies in this goal-glut season.

Newcastle fans... £20,000 to their local food bank in protest at pay-perview games.

Leeds, £23,000 and rising. Man City, £25k plus. Sunderland fans, £18k. Burnley, £24k.

Middlesbrough’s charity had supplied 25,000 food parcels to kids since March.

Boro striker Ashley Fletcher, inspired by his former Old Trafford team-mate Marcus Rashford, is leading the campaign to deliver 1,000 more on Teesside next week.

What started as a localised protest over PPV on Tyneside – reported here last week when the total raised by Geordies reached £5k – has exploded.

One Tory MP described helping kids on free school meals at half-term was akin to ‘nationalising children’.

Well, actually it is the generosity of football supporters that has become nationalised. Look at Spurs fans hitting £77k for charity.

Has there ever been a week when the power of football to do big-hearted good has been so well demonstrated?

Northern cities are being hit hard by coronavirus, jobs are being lost and businesses struggling.

Fans haven’t been near their seats since March, nor had the chance to chant and cheer as part of their football community.

But proud allegiances to big city clubs have boomed out loud and clear in the solidarity to do good.

“It epitomises the North and how good the people are,” said Steve

Bruce, Toon manager. “In really hard times, fair play to those who have helped others. The North has it more tough, especially up here.”

More players, often from ordinary backgrounds who have come through hardship, should be emboldened by this and the lead of Rashford.

Football has become a weapon in the fight for fairness and compassion.

At the same time it stands as a totem of greed and exploitation.

Fans in the North have come down on the right side.