After four years stuck down in the second-tier, Dundee United’s eventual escape from the Championship should have been a cause for celebration. Yet, supporters sadly weren’t there to watch the trophy held above the players heads, and nor could we be there to watch the Championship flag unfurled ahead of the opening day fixture against Tayside rivals St. Johnstone. Instead of a day of celebration at Tannadice, the opening day felt rather surreal.

Rather than sitting in the stands to take in the game, I found myself sitting in my room watching the game being played in front of an entirely empty stadium - the shouts of the players easily heard in the absence of noise from the stands. In some ways it was nice to have football back, but in many other ways it was sad the situation prevented us from being there to enjoy it - even if the match itself proved to be one of the less memorable games played in the club’s history.

I imagine the feeling would have been even more surreal for those whose life for decades has revolved around following whatever club they support - travelling all over to support the 11 players on the pitch. Suddenly all those pre and post match rituals vanished and were replaced by viewing the match on the laptop, listening on the radio, or even just having to refresh Twitter constantly for updates. Most would agree these are better than no football, but every fan will tell you they are not at all like physically being in the stadium to watch your team.

The replacements for the match day experience does vary wildly by clubs - some have well put together pre-match shows and reasonable commentary - not to mention a functioning streaming platform to begin with. Online, these clubs have a large presence and people can see what fellow fans make of the action so far and which players are shining through and which are having a bad day. It’s far from being in the stands, but it’s familiar enough to be bearable until fans are allowed to return. Luckily, as a supporter of a Premiership club this is largely my experience - and it’s not all that different to what I’m used to from most match days as the 80 mile distance was typically a barrier to me getting to most games anyway.

However, fans of many lower league clubs don’t have it so lucky - in clubs where even the players are on part-time deals, there’s hardly the money to pay somebody to run some streaming software and provide good quality coverage of the game. For them, the experience may very well be trying to follow on a twitter feed for news of goals - and they’d be lucky to ever see the highlight reel showing these goals. This does lead to a significantly reduced experience - reading that your star striker has scored a wonder goal on Twitter isn’t the same as even seeing it on a livestream, and that’s already very far from seeing it in person.

Not being there to see the season being kicked off is one thing, but if - and right now the odds aren’t great - things aren’t okay by May and stadiums can’t be full to the rafters, it will be devastating for the fans of many clubs (even if the players of relegated clubs will have a sigh of relief). This year’s league is either the one where Celtic win 10 in a row, or where Rangers stop the 10 and claim their first title since 2012 - fans who would have dreamed of telling their grandkids of the atmosphere at Celtic Park or Ibrox on that day may well now have to recount the tale of how they sat in their living room. This is far from ideal, but in many ways they’re the lucky ones - Celtic and Rangers will both win silverware regularly once this is over - but for the fan of a smaller team the chance to see your team win silverware doesn’t come around often and being there when it happens is a huge moment. If a team like St. Johnstone, Livingston, or even my own Dundee United were to win the Scottish Cup this year without fans there, it would hit hard among many supporters.

With all of this considered, it really is no surprise that many are hoping that fans can be back inside stadiums soon. All sports are about far more than just the game itself, they are defined by the social aspect, the traditional habits, and big moments like watching your side lift the cup. Online streams are better than nothing, but they’re certainly far from the full match day experience.