Technical advisor of  the Black Stars Chris Hughton has  shed light on how he dealt with racism as a black man playing in England and Ireland in the 1970's.

Hughton is a pioneer for black players who started playing in England and is the first black player to play for Ireland the country of his mother.

At a point in his playing career he was the only black player for Tottenham Hotspurs and reveals that he coped with racist abuse through  family support at the  time.

As a player, Hughton was quite frequently the target of racist abuse from the terraces.

‘I never looked for support from them. You experienced it, you got on with it. The support mechanisms were your home life, family and friends. That was the comfort zone. You’d go back to them and try to process it.’ he told Daily Mail

For years, the behaviour went unchecked by the authorities, leaving the few black players in the game to deal with it in silence, often without the support of team-mates.

Hughton had broken down several significant racial barriers in a career dating back to the late 1970s.

For a period, he was the only black player in Tottenham’s first team and became the first to represent his country, for whom he qualified via his mother.

He went on to become one of only nine black managers to hold a full-time position in the Premier League and is comfortably the most experienced.