Milton Keynes Central station on any given Saturday is a blaze of vibrant polyester and almost all of it leaving on trains to different parts of the country.
Reds and blues striking out for the North West. Old gold and claret bound for the Midlands. All the colours of London football travelling south. There might be a glimpse of MK Dons white, but you would be hard pressed to work out this was their turf.
It is the nature of a new town. Those who have made it their home will have roots somewhere else and football loyalties are easy reinforcements for lost identity.
MK Dons are a club that have inspired hatred since their creation when the FA enabled Wimbledon, then ailing and homeless, to be torn from their south-west London heartland and moved 60 miles north.
At the age of 20 though they have drifted towards footballing irrelevance, clinging on to memories of a season in the Championship and days when teenage midfielder Dele Alli had Premier League scouts scrambling for tickets, and that is arguably worse.
MK Dons have been controversial ever since their creation when the FA enabled Wimbledon, then ailing, to be torn from their south-west London heartland and moved 60 miles north
Under the ambitious Pete Winkelman as owner, they had plans to rise up to the Premier League
But, 20 years after their creation, MK Dons find themselves languishing down in League Two
On Saturday they beat Walsall to climb away from the lower reaches of League Two, with just 6,547 inside a fabulous stadium big enough for 30,000 in a city whose population tops 287,000 and is rising fast.
This was not in the masterplan hatched by Pete Winkelman when he bypassed the football pyramid and brought professional football to his adopted home without the inconveniences of winning promotion.
Winkelman set out to get to the Premier League, recognising he had to win over hearts and minds.
He promised attractive football, youth development and strong community links. In theory, those founding principles have remained largely in place.
Head coach Mike Williamson is committed to a pure passing style, but in practice it has been much tougher since relegation from the Championship in 2016.
Winkelman’s Dons lost their way. Near-misses in the play-offs were unable to mask a downward spiral, while the club’s reputation in the community has been damaged by a long-running dispute between the MK Dons Sport Educational Trust and MK United, one of the city’s biggest grassroots clubs with 18 teams across junior and adult football.
The Dons SET, an independent charity affiliated to the football club and connected at board level, threatened grassroots volunteers with private legal action for what it claimed were unpaid fees for pitches they manage on behalf of the council. Those fees are fiercely contested. They are effectively the difference between prices recommended by the Football Foundation for the community facilities in question and inflated prices charged by the Dons SET on behalf of the council.
Fans cling on to the good times of a season in the Championship and a young Dele Alli (left)
The club is at a crossroads, with Fahad Al Ghanim taking control from Winkelman last month
The upshot of this is that MK United have been banned from hiring any council pitches run by the Dons SET for months.
In a broader sense, this is indicative of the attitude of modern professional football towards the grassroots game, which is in a state of serious neglect, surviving on the goodwill of volunteers. At a micro level, it reflects poorly on MK Dons.
Winkelman sold the club last month, accepting defeat. Even with his passion and powers of persuasion, the dream of reaching the Premier League is more fanciful than ever.
The club many wished never existed stand firmly at a crossroads. Their new chairman Fahad Al Ghanim, the head of a Kuwaiti consortium, is an Arsenal fan who owns a home in Milton Keynes and has bought the club, the stadium, the arena next door and the car parking company.
Al Ghanim hired a corporate box to watch the Dons last season and after the takeover his representative Moath Al Manayes told fans the ambition was still to aim for the Premier League, albeit through sensible investment. It will not be, Al Manayes promised, a ‘billionaires’ playground’.
On Saturday they go to AFC Wimbledon and animosity will simmer as it always does when the teams meet. It is a unique rivalry, one with an unpleasant edge at times.
Boss Mike Williamson is committed to a pure passing style, but things haven't been simple
They are set to renew their hostilities with arch-rivals AFC Wimbledon on Saturday afternoon
Both clubs were fined after a mass confrontation last season at Plough Lane, sparked when Ronan Curtis won it for the home side in the last minute and goaded away fans.
Wimbledon’s Harry Pell was also banned and fined for kicking the ball at MK Dons fans during the warm-up.
If intense hatred is fading into indifference in some parts of the country, nothing is about to change in SW17.
FIVE THINGS I LEARNED THIS WEEK…
Kane still has plenty to give ahead of bringing up his century
Harry Kane will be the tenth man to earn 100 caps when he leads England out against Finland tomorrow.
He has reached that inside a decade, with 66 goals along the way. Kane should have scored with a first-half header against Ireland, but looked in good shape.
Impatience can hold when a great, long-serving player reaches this stage of his career, but Kane is only 31.
Viable alternatives are scarce and getting scarcer with Ivan Toney going to Saudi Arabia. We should not hustle Kane away from the England scene prematurely.
Robert Lewandoski (36), Edin Dzeko (38) and Cristiano Ronaldo (39) all hit the net during this international break.
Harry Kane is set to win his 100th cap for England in their Nations League clash against Finland
Non-League side score goal of the week
Two stylish strikes to enjoy from Jack Grealish and Declan Rice in Dublin, but goal of the week belongs to Danny Cashman.
On the break, he dribbled box-to-box with one-twos thrown in for Worthing against Boreham Wood in National League South.
Worrying signs for Morecambe
Full marks for consistency but no points and no goals yet for Morecambe, who have lost their opening five League Two games in a binary style — five defeats, all 1-0.
They have defied gravity since promotion to the EFL in 2007, but crashed down from League One last season amid financial chaos and ownership problems, which continue. It is a tall order for Derek Adams, now in his third spell as manager.
Things aren't looking good for Derek Adams' Morecambe after five defeats to start the season
Bristol Street Motors Trophy feels the love at Birmingham
The Bristol Street Motors Trophy is a strange competition, unloved by fans until they’re pulling on giant sponge fingers at Wembley.
With every tie now live on Sky Sports I was curious about early attendances. There were under a thousand at some games, but the one to leap out was 9,752 at Birmingham to see Walsall win on penalties.
It was the biggest crowd in the group stage since this format was introduced in 2016-17.
It was testament to positivity under new owners at St Andrew’s and a first derby between the clubs for 23 years.
There is a sense of positivity at Birmingham with boss Chris Davies and ambitious owners
We've come a long way since San Marino's last win
All the excitement around San Marino’s first win for more than 20 years got me wondering what might have changed since they last beat Liechtenstein. Back in April 2004, Jose Mourinho was still at Porto and Arsenal were at the end of the Invincibles season.
Charlton, Bolton and Birmingham were in the Premier League’s top 10.
Wimbledon were playing in Milton Keynes, but MK Dons was not in existence.