Ukraine soldiers on, and so does its premier league.

Football is played in the face of evil. In a sense, its very existence is poetic. And symbolic.

Never a dull moment here. Woken at 3am by a Shahed flying over Kyiv, it was panic stations.

Almost as scary was the five-hour bus to Oleksandriya driven on bad roads by a guy seemingly on steroids whose phone was stuck to his ear most of the way (top tip: NEVER get the bus to Oleksandriya).

All put into perspective, of course, by a genuinely Ukrainian outpouring of almost unbearable raw emotion.

The match was kicked off by a two year old.

A swift tap as both sides applauded – presumably father was killed fighting Russia – then he decided to carry the ball off the pitch. Tears were shed.

As if we needed further reminding that there was a war on, the game kicked off around 1.35pm, only after the air raid all-clear was sounded, 35 minutes later than advertised.

When drones enter any region the alarm is sounded but most people ignore them. Nothing happens and the bomb, never seen, flies on somewhere else. Mostly.

The players came out bearing Ukrainian flags to the sound of AC/DC’s Highway to Hell, which I took to be ironic. The national anthem was sung, followed by a minute’s silence.

Then, the ceremonial kick-off.

Phew! Top that for pre-match impact.

Well, in essence, the players couldn’t. But that wasn’t really the point.

Oleks, coached by former Dnipro hotshot Ruslan Rotan built their ground in 1998 and it serves a city 200 miles south-east of Kyiv well.

Some 100,000 people live here and pretty it ain’t. Street markets featuring cages of rabbits stuck in the mind and it lacks the glitz of the big cities.

The club’s unlikely rise seems to have coincided with an agricultural tycoon Serhiy Kuzmenko pumping money in. They’ve played three seasons in the Europa League and were third in-the UPL in 2018/19

Last season all Ukraine Premier League games were played in front of 50 or so people. Large gatherings were not encouraged but this year small crowds have been allowed in.

Some 730 attended. Later, in Kyiv, Obolon attracted 2,400 as they hosted city big boys Dinamo.

Fans were mostly pensioners or boys striving to be men who came equipped with a masked drummer and an enviable energy to inject some life into proceedings. The bumfluff crew.

100 drivna to get in, about £2, and we were off.

Oleks fielded two Ukrainian internationals Ivan Kaliuzhnyi, who has just broken into the national side, and Artem Shabanov, who got 44 minutes against Estonia a few years back.

Vorskla don’t have Harry Kane but do have Malian Ibrahim Kane, a Nigerian striker Samson Iyede, and a smattering of under-21 internationals. Last year they lost the cup final to Shakhtar.

How they got there was a mystery given the showing in this game which made even a Vorskla fan like me wonder if I was wasting my time.

They were pretty insipid. Played like a 0-0 would be a massive cause for celebration and took 28 minutes to muster a shot.

The home team in that time had a couple of headers but were at least driving forward.

So it was down to the youngsters and their drummer to inject interest.

They swapped ‘Putin Khylo’ chants (v derogatory) with the rump of visiting fans.

And ‘ZSU’ echoed around the 8.000- capacity arena – a chant in support of the armed forces’ efforts.

No goals first half and the prospect of a second-half shocker on the cards.

But Oleks beat Ukrainian crack outfit Shakhtar 4-3 here in August, in front of 1,180, and managed to give us a glimpse of how.

A Mykyto Kravchenko cross was nodded in at the far post by Oleks Bieliaiev, waking us all up, on 58 minutes.

There’s a ten minute video here but , perhaps, give it a miss eh?

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCHDzcbylV7d69hn1BTnJ_qA/videos

Not much else to say really. They held on, there were no frills, few thrills.

So, not a game to stir the spirits, by any means.

But, as an event, a communal assertion of the human spirit – apologies for sounding pretentious – it passed muster.

It may be only football, but sometimes it isn’t.