Watching amateur football made me realise that Premier League stars are just like the rest of us

Lockdown has normalised footballers and made the experience of a Premier League football match more relatable, stripped back to its bare bones, writes Lawrence Ostlere

Cystal Palace striker Wilfried Zaha scores from the spot against Brighton at the weekend (Getty Images)

At Selhurst Park on Sunday, covering Crystal Palace vs Brighton, I bumped into a Premier League footballer in the toilets. In came substitute Aaron Connolly, Brighton’s Irish forward, who like me was taking a pitstop during a pretty tedious first half.

After considering the flaw that could allow a player to share the same facilities as a reporter and, for that matter, anyone else knocking around the stadium, I got thinking about just how noticeable the lack of fans in a stadium can be.

Connolly’s boots made the familiar clacking sound of studs on concrete, which conjured memories not of Premier League football but of weekend amateur games, and it was a similar feeling pitchside hearing every word the players shouted. A bingo card of amateur cliches would have been filled in no time – “Man on!”; “I got the ball!”; “Open your eyes ref, you’re missing a good game” – just like any Sunday League game.