North Greenford United’s Southern League Division One Central match against Bedford Town on Saturday was abandoned after a fan collapsed at the ground shortly after kick off.

After his fall, the spectator was immediately attended to by North Greenford’s football secretary and physio Barbara Bivens, supported by committee member Richard Rooney and Bedford Town supporter Paul Reading, the father of one of their players.

They did all they could to revive the man, with Bivens making use of the club’s defibrillator, and continued to help the NHS paramedics who had responded promptly to the club’s emergency call.

In the circumstances, as was agreed by all at the ground, referee Nicholas Mackenzie had no alternative but to first suspend play, and then to abandon the game.

Eventually, at around 4pm, with the paramedics still working hard to revive him, the man was stretchered to the ambulance and taken to hospital. Sadly, despite the efforts of all concerned, it was later learned that he had passed away.

With the agreement of his family, he has now be named as David Barnes, a 62 who had lived his entire life in the Ealing area. He attended Walpole Grammar School, brought up his family in Pitshanger and was currently living in Greenford.

He leaves behind a wife, two daughters, two sons and three grandchildren. A keen supporter of local football, he regularly 'groundhop' between local clubs, while his brother-in-law, Michael Peters, played for North Greenford many years ago.

A Southern League statement said the family would like to extend their heartfelt thanks to all involved in this incident and the efforts they made to revive Mr Barnes, and for the respect shown to him by both sets of supporters.