When Bristol Rovers were relegated from the Football League at the end of last season, everyone was looking forward to playing them in the Conference.

Reflecting on our trip to the Memorial Stadium in October, even though we lost 1-0, we gave a good account of ourselves.

But I will always remember that as the night when I got racially abused and how, on matchdays, there are still lessons to be learnt regarding the right protocol being followed by officials and the stewards.

For me, though, the biggest lesson was to follow.

Once I had gone public with what had happened, messages of support came flooding through on my Twitter account from Rovers fans as well as others.

The next day a friend of mine, who used to work at the anti-racism organisation Kick It Out, rang me and asked if I had spoken to them, to which I replied "no".

He told me how the organisation have changed and that I should give them the benefit of the doubt. When I received the phone call from a Kick It Out representative, I gave him my account of what had happened.

He asked me "How far do you want to go with this?" and I replied "All the way!" He said "Leave it with me, I’ll ring you back to organise a day for us to meet" – but I still haven’t had that phone call.

Kick It Out are not the only ones who had contacted me offering support.

The race equality department at the PFA said they would keep pushing the police, although I don’t know what was done.

An FA representative told me he would chase it up with the police and Bristol Rovers but again, I never heard back from him.

I had been a victim of racial abuse on three other occasions and never had any support but I honestly thought this time would be different. How wrong I was. These same so-called anti-racism campaigns gave me absolutely no support.

An area where I will say there was progression is with the police. They came to my house on a number of occasions, offering support as well as keeping me updated with what was going on. That gave me confidence that they were taking the matter seriously.

When the verdict came through and I found out the man who abused me had been given a three-year banning order, I was massively satisfied.

However, people within the football world still need to address why the correct protocols were not followed.

Kick It Out released a statement without even consulting me and they brandished me a liar by contradicting what I told this website last week. They’re still providing nothing but lip service.

Football has said that it can take the lead on matters like this because it is a sport of different languages, religions, genders, sexualities, abilities and colours – but I beg to differ.

If I was still playing in the Premier League these campaigns would go above and beyond to help, but now I’m down in the lower leagues I’m simply not a priority any more.