As you watch from the terraces of the Creek in Sea Mills, the home of Bristol Manor Farm FC, trains between Bristol and Severn Beach rattle past the back of the ground. Back in 2012, this journey marked the start of an enduring connection between the club and Kevin O’Donohue.

“Funnily enough, I was on my way to watch Chelsea,” he recalls. He’d had a Stamford Bridge season ticket for years, and watched the Blues lift the Champions League trophy in Munich a few months earlier. But Kev, then new to Bristol, glanced out of the window and saw the Creek’s patchy turf. “I thought, ‘Who plays there?’ Something about that little ground made me want to go down.”

Within months, Kev was watching ‘the Farm’ every week. He became a constant presence pitchside in his Manor Farm emblazoned shirt and tie, juggling roles such as matchday announcer, commentator and reporter. He swapped the Champions League for the hustle and bustle of the Western Football League – step 8 in the English football hierarchy, from which Manor Farm have since gained promotion – and there was no turning back.

Kev’s journey is an increasingly well-travelled one. The jarring sensation of ever-more corporatised experiences within a game forged in working-class communities is feeding disillusionment among plenty of football supporters. At the Creek, players natter with fans in the clubhouse, old hands shuffle to their usual spot on the terrace, home and away supporters mingle at half-time.

The club provides a sense of belonging and connection often missing in the sport’s higher echelons. As with many other non-league clubs it survives thanks to a handful of small business benefactors and dedicated team volunteers, such as Kev.

He has moved away from Bristol to the Isle of Wight – but still makes it to the occasional game, carrying out match announcing duties, Twitter commentaries, and the other seemingly endless tasks and responsibilities associated with non-league football. Even 100 miles away, the lure of his club, with its sloping pitch, is too hard to ignore.