“Who was the first black professional footballer in the Football League?” asked the quiz master. I’ll be impressed if you know but it was beyond me. So, with some time to spare, I did a quick Google search and found out some amazing things for any fact collector.

While Arthur Wharton was the first black professional in the Football League as the now-defunct Rotherham Town’s goalkeeper-cum-winger, Andrew Watson pre-dates him as the first black professional by two years. Mr. Watson was paid in 1887 by Bootle FC who weren’t in the Football League. Moreover, Mr. Watson is also credited for being the first ever black international footballer after playing for Scotland in 1881. This incredible feat was nearly a century before Viv Anderson made his debut for England in 1978.

Fast forward 135 years, the Black and Minority Ethnic community (BME) is well-represented in football. In the Premier League and EFL, 25% of players are from a BME background and at least ten of the players in Southgate’s squad named for the recent World Cup Qualifiers are BME.

Nevertheless, despite the significant representation of BME players, there’s an outspoken section who will racially abuse players at games and, perhaps a curse of progress, online. These “fans” are widely condemned. However, there is the less overt racist incidents that go largely undetected but still negatively impact on many BME players’ experience of the game and experience at their clubs. Incidents such as BME players getting more criticism, not starting or getting picked as often.

Looking a little closer to home, Emley wing back Callum Charlton and forward Ryan John have taken the time to talk to us about their experiences as black footballers in modern day non-league football.

24-year-old Callum started playing football at six while in his native Halifax. Between 12 and 16, he was playing for Huddersfield-based Clifton Rangers.

It was during his early teenage years that Callum said he had experienced his first couple of instances of racial abuse.

While talking about the first incident, when he was playing for Clifton U14s, he said, “the guy was sent off but I don’t think anything happened after that. It was a different time then and no one knew what to do about it.”

Asking why he thinks he was racially abused, with a half smile, he said, “I was the best player on the field and I think some people didn’t like that.”

The second incident was while he was at school which he said was “very white and I don’t think many came into contact with a black person.” The situation escalated into a fight which resulted in a four week suspension for Callum while the assailant was expelled - turns out that it wasn’t the first time he was reprimanded for racism.

Callum on it said, “it’s just the way some people are. It’s all learnt behaviour and we can only educate people. But social media has definitely made it worse, look what happened after the Euros.”

As for the rest of his career, Callum has only spoken positively. He earnt a professional contract at Huddersfield Town but broke his fourth metatarsal which led to his release. After that, he went to Altrincham before moving back across the Pennines to Brighouse Town and then Yorkshire Amateur before manager Richard Tracey brought him to Emley.

As a young, talented player, we’d forgive him for wanting to climb the pyramid but he loves it at Emley saying, “Emley is a really friendly, welcoming club and I’ve had no problems here. I was made to feel welcome right away and all the lads, back room staff and committee are great.”

A newcomer to the club, Ryan joined Emley from local rivals Golcar United earlier this season and has been somewhat of a one-club man. He started at Westwood in his junior years which then became Golcar’s junior wing and has been with the club ever since, except for a brief stint at Britannia Sports to start his open age career at 18.

The reason for Ryan’s move was simply because he wasn’t getting the game time that he wanted. “I’ve played at Golcar for years and I have loyalties. I’m still mates with the lads but I was keen when I got the call from Rich because I missed playing regularly on a Saturday. I’m still not fully match fit with some little niggles but I appreciate Rich’s understanding,” he said, “and if I’m still wanted and can get regular game time at Emley in the future then it’s a no brainer really.”

On joining Emley, Ryan was enthused, saying, “all the lads are sound, there are a few characters but I’m new and I’m still learning names... It feels like a proper community club and I enjoy playing in front of the crowd.”

Our conversation turned to racism and his experiences with that, to which he said, “I’ve never experienced any racism, maybe I’m one of the lucky ones or it could be that I’m light skinned. But, I really want to say that if anyone is out there who doesn’t want to play because they’re worried about being racially abused, especially after what’s happened recently, it’s not at all like that at our level.”

It’s pleasing that Callum and Ryan have positive experiences at our club but, of course, some players, as we know from the news, aren’t so lucky. On a final note, please research Arthur Wharton and Andrew Watson’s incredible careers and anything else mentioned in this feature as there is a lot more to discover...

(This was originally published in the Match Programme for FA Vase v Longridge Town FC on Saturday 23rd October).