As a travelling England fan, it was an early 1am start on Monday for the drive down to East Midlands airport for the 6.30am TUI flight to Skopje, in North Macedonia.

Officially called North Macedonia in 2019, they were known as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, after the split up of Yugoslavia in 1991.

Skopje dates back more than 7,000 years with evidence of the Romans and Ottoman empires and is the birthplace of Mother Teresa. It is a beautiful city with snow-capped mountains in the distance with the Vardar river running through the middle.

There are lots of bridges crossing the river to the Old Bazaar district, the most famous being the Stone Bridge, dating from Byzantine times and rebuilt circa 1450. There are churches, mosques and other magnificent buildings around the city and particularly along the river. There are alsdo statues everywhere, commemorating local heroes and events. Skopje Fortress overlooks the city and was free to visit.

Shaun O’Gara and I met up with fellow fans Phil, from Port Vale, Jonathan, from West Bromwich Albion, and Lucy, from Oxford United. Lunch was a chicken steak in a mushroom sauce with rice and a soft drink for 350 denari, about £5! After an interesting tour of the city, we found the Old Town brewery, which had a lovely beer garden, live music and very decent Skopsko beer at £2.50 a pint.

After a great day, everybody had to walk to the Todor Proeski Stadium, along the Vardar river. The stadium is named in honour of the Macedonian pop idol, Todor Proeski, who sadly was killed in a car crash, aged just 26 years old.

There was massive security around the city and stadium, with hundreds, if not thousands, of riot police on duty, armed with batons and shields. They were not intrusive but merely chose to maintain a presence. There was a table of six riot police in the beer garden, who were friendly, drinking soft drinks and smoking cigarettes.

There were hundreds of stewards at the stadium but the security searches were no worse than you would get at home. Rumours that you could not take coins and keys into the stadium were unfounded, though all the local currency seemed to be notes anyway.

To the match and I thought England played all right, controlling most of the match. The referee seemed a bit suspect, giving free-kicks to the North Macedonians, if they got breathed on. Their penalty seemed harsh, given by VAR, not helped by their centre forward rolling about as if he had been poleaxed. It was enough to give me a bout of Tourettes! Thankfully, we managed to equalise once Harry Kane came on and came away with a draw, to end our EURO 2024 qualifying campaign unbeaten.

After the match, we were kept in the stadium for more than 30 minutes, during which the frustrated England fans gave the Channel 4 commentary team right in front of us, some uncomplimentary schoolboy stick.

When we were released, it was about a 30-minute walk back to the coaches and then another 30-minute wait for a police escort back to the airport. Inevitably, this meant the plane had to be delayed but Sport Options and Skopje airport staff did brilliantly to get us through check-in and security as quickly as possible. We took off about one-and-a-half hours late.

Arriving back at East Midlands airport around 4.15am, we drove home via the M1 and M62, getting home around 8.15am.

A long day but another good one following England away.