Newcastle found themselves playing in the Nea Smyrni district of Athens last night but, had they been playing Panionios 90 years ago, they wouldn't have been lining up in Europe at all.

The club was founded in 1890 in the area of Smyrni, a border region in Asia Minor that straddles modern-day Greece and Turkey.

Ethnically, the area is predominantly Turkish and when a bloody war broke out in the early 1920s, Smyrni became a flashpoint for ethnic and religious tensions.

Most of the city and its surrounding areas was razed to the ground.

The the Greek population were forcibly expelled from their homes and driven westwards into Europe.

A massive wave of migrants arrived in Athens and, wanting to retain their cultural and social identity, the newcomers established their own homeland on the edge of the city.

That little piece of Asia Minor became Nea Smyrni (New Smyrni) and the residents sought to re-establish some of the traditions and bodies they had been forced to leave behind.

New churches, theatres and businesses emerged and, in 1940, the Smyrnian diaspora built a brand new football stadium to house a re-formed Panionios.

Even today, Panionios retains strong bonds with the local community as the mayor and local government of Nea Smyrni are responsible for the running and development of the club.

Football might be nothing more than a game but, for the residents of this Athenian suburb, the sport plays a vital role in forming their cultural identity.

Panionios aren't just close to the local community in a cultural sense - geographically, the club's ground could not be any more integrated into Nea Smyrni's fabric.

The stadium lies slap bang in the middle of a rabbit warren of streets and alleys, making it particularly difficult to get into and out of.

Arriving to watch training on Wednesday night, the media found themselves utterly stuck after our bus became trapped between parked cars on either side of the road.

A lot of scratching of heads got us nowhere, before the locals decided to take things into their own hands.

From nowhere, four caf workers descended and proceeded to bounce one of the cars all the way off the side of the road and on to the pavement.

I'm not sure who won the heavyweight weightlifting class in the Olympic Games - but I can think of four Greeks who must be in with a shout in four years time.

After the trouble in Ostrava during the UEFA Cup first round, it has been a pleasure to watch Newcastle and Middlesbrough fans happily mingling in Athens' central squares.

The Geordies seem to have the advantage in numbers, but the Teessiders were making sure their presence didn't go unnoticed with an impressive display of flags and banners.

With plenty of Arsenal fans also still in town following Wednesday night's Champions League clash with Panathinaikos, the Greek capital has become something of a hotbed of English football this week.

Our hotel stands immediately opposite Greece's Parliament building and, when I was woken yesterday morning by the wail of police sirens, I temporarily feared the worst.

The Athenian police were certainly out in force yesterday, but their presence on the city's streets had nothing to do with football.

Instead, Athens was brought to a standstill yesterday morning by a massive trade union rally.

They were protesting against the government's treatment of its public sector workers.

It was possibly a far more important cause to be arguing about than the pros and cons of fox hunting.