Morning View: Brentford and Northern Ireland offer tips on how to be the best runner up that you can be

With only a handful of trophies available at club and international level, most teams fall into the latter category, which means as a fan it’s very important how you prepare yourself for the campaign ahead in terms of expectations.

That’s not to say enthusiasm should be dampened if you know the best your club can achieve is a place in the Europa Conference League or best placed runner up in World Cup qualifying.

Brentford are a team that has caught the eye in the Premier League this season having already beaten Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool.

When the club was in the lower leagues they used to get teased by West London rivals QPR with the chant, ‘You’re just a bus stop in Hounslow’.

After a 3-1 victory over Liverpool on Monday night Brentford fans bounced and sang and waved scarves that read ‘Just A Bus Stop In Hounslow’. It’s also the title of book charting the rise of the club at their debut season in the Premier League.

The way their fans have embraced their ‘small club’ status and wear it as a badge of pride is reminiscent of Northern Ireland’s Green and White Army.

Just as Brentford fans have turned their enemy’s slight into their very ethos, the GAWA live by the mantra ‘We're not Brazil, we're Northern Ireland, but it’s all the same to me’.

Northern Ireland fans know their team will never reach the heights of the five times World Cup winners, but that doesn't stop them from being as proud and passionate about the national team as their counterparts in Rio.

Let’s hope NI fans are cheering for reasons other than blind devotion this year after a wretched 2022.