In the war zone that was central Leeds, with riot vans at every vantage point, a group of fans charging a double decker bus said everything about the current reality of trying to maintain order in football.
It was the biggest security operation the Premier League has ever known — 900 West Yorkshire police officers, working on orders that Manchester United fans, who were funnelled out of the main railway station in buses, should be segregated.
But one of the buses became briefly stranded in a logjam on Victoria Road, allowing a Leeds group to race towards it, in front of traffic, their faces contorted as they hurled the taunts about Mason Greenwood’s rape arrest, which have been washing around social media for weeks.