'We've awful reasons to be here': The football team of dads who have lost a child

It is a nasty morning at Oldham Athletic’s Chapel Road training ground: the rain constant and the wind gusts shifting its path to ensure that every side of you is wet. But on the side of the pitch, a group of men in matching tracksuits and shorts are beaming. They aren’t part of the first team and never will be, although they love the game. But Oldham increasingly consider them as part of the club.

The men are from Angels United, a local football team. They are here as part of the EFL’s Week of Action, which connects professional clubs with organisations in their local community and celebrates the constant work of community trusts.

This partnership already holds weight. Before their home game with Barrow on 11 October, Oldham’s first team warmed up at Boundary Park in the pink-and-blue