Just for a change Dave Woodhall’s been to a football match. He was encouraged by what he saw.

On Wednesday evening I went to Sedgemere Social in Yardley to watch Clements 83 v Aston in the Midland Combination division two, which is about as low down the non-league pyramid as you can get.

The Clements team were made up of whites, Afro-Caribbeans and Asians. Aston, who are based in the park where shots had allegedly been fired the night before, are run by Asians and their players are predominantly Afro-Caribbean. They won a reasonable game two-nil with their first goal scored by Charisma Agbonlahor, whose brother Gabriel was one of the crowd of twenty-odd (double that if you include the kids kicking their own balls around the field).

No problems, no worries, no abuse, no violence. Just two teams enjoying themselves playing football watched by spectators who appreciated their efforts.

And that’s why the looters, rioters, bigots, racists of all persuasions and those who are either predicting or encouraging race wars will be disappointed. It may take time, but the good people will win. We always do.