YOU can see them on the terraces that still exist in the lower end of the Football League.

Gangs of lads dressed in Stone Island and CP Company. Black hoods hiding their eyes, face snoods pulled up.

They stand around the crush barriers in groups of five or six here and there — the hooligan firms of the future.

Because when these teenage boys start to mob up and begin drinking and snorting cocaine on away days following their clubs around the country, there is the potential for a return to violence in the game that hasn’t been seen on a large scale for many years now.

The instinct is already there. Goading visiting fans walking back up towards the train station in a column across the street.

Feeling that excitement as someone throws a bottle or sets off a flare and the smoke pours out between the cars. They’re on their toes in their £80 trainers even if they’re not entirely sure what to do.

Maybe they’ve been watching Green Street or one of their dad’s other hooligan movies.

Perhaps they’ve been told stories by wayward uncles of trips out when the floodlight pylons rose above the red rows of terraced houses and black slate roofs as they battled on the tarmac in some strange town. But they’re game.

It’s at the football grounds that you see the effects of over a decade of austerity first. There’s a pressure to carry that designer shoulder bag and to wear the right gear as casual culture gets a new lease of life among the youngsters today.

That puts stress on the already stretched finances in households. Tension, arguments, pressure — it all needs a release and in the past that manifested itself in battling lads from other areas on the streets and in the grounds.

Never mind the fears over recent high-profile pitch invasions — there is a menace lurking just below the surface at many games now as lads who’ve been priced out of the housing market and denied the chance to go to university look to release their anger somewhere.

They are frustrated, neglected and overlooked by mainstream society but can earn legendary status on an estate by steaming into 20 visiting fans or lobbing a fire extinguisher through a bus window.

There is a frustration that has been generated in Britain through Brexit, through Covid, through politicians that please themselves — and that impotent rage has to be vented somewhere. Don’t be surprised if it is at the football.