I check back to see how many minutes remain. Answer – 23 minutes. Plus any time added on for injury.

Twenty-three minutes. West Ham could pull back to win 5-4 in that time. Tell you what – let’s write this in real time, let’s "live blog" this blog and see how they manage with that aspiration.

It’s an ambitious aspiration as things stand, granted. Thus far into the season, West Ham have conceded 12 goals to City, scoring one themselves. Let’s put a positive slant on this then – let’s look for a single goal.

I am hearing in my head now the voices (yes, very funny, please let me finish). The voices which are, from memory, mournful and Scottish and echoing round the old Wembley Stadium, pleading with their team to the tune of John and Yoko’s Give Peace A Chance anthem – “All we are sa-ying, is give us a goal”.

But here’s the thing. Just imagine the unimaginable happens, and West Ham score – I’m going to check in a second but first I want to say this – if that does happen, how will the “mass exodus” feel as it trudges back to Stratford station? Those fans will have given up. 

OK, its 82 minutes gone now and still 4-0 – but that is not the point. They will have given up the chance of seeing any defiant flourish, or defeatist flourish, or however you want to describe it.

Another stupendous overhead kick from Andy Carroll perhaps? OK, not going to happen, he was substituted by Ashley Fletcher in the 79^th minute. But that is not the point.

The point is – what is the point of being a supporter of a team if you drift away in a huff when things are going badly wrong? Or even slightly wrong? Aren’t supporters meant to support – or is that a crazed notion?

God knows Premier League football is expensive enough these days and I guess if you pays your money you takes your choice on how much of a match you watch. You’ve paid in advance for the privilege of missing out if you so desire. You could even decide not to turn up at all – that would show ‘em what you thought of them.

But to my mind, leaving a match early is like leaving a pint unfinished on the bar. It’s all wrong.

OK, I’ve just checked, and it’s not so bad really. We held them to 4-0, which is not ideal but at least it’s better than the Cup result.

And the other piece of news is that we are still in the top half of the table, although just one position down from it in actual fact.

God knows, West Ham players down the years have been cruelly baited by their fans, particularly by those located in the old Chicken Run before it was replaced by the East Stand in what is now the demolished Boleyn Ground. Vicious verbals are part of the great West Ham tradition. Better than bottling it up!

For some football followers, walking away early is not necessarily an expression of frustration, rage, angst or despair. Some folk just love to get an early start home in the car - radio on, heater going; or to get to the Tube before the rush. Perfectly managed, it feels just like scoring a personal goal.

George Best was famously reported to have missed the late, late goals with which Manchester United beat Bayern Munich 2-1 to win the Champions League in 1999 - 31 years after his second goal had finally tipped the European Cup final against Benfica the way of United. He had left early to drown his sorrows in a local bar.

Many another less celebrated spectator has made the same kind of error of judgement before and since.

In 2012, for example, there were numerous vacated seats at the Etihad Stadium as Manchester City trailed QPR 2-1 before earning a 3-2 victory in extra-time which secured them their first league title since 1968, relegating rivals United to second place on goal difference.

Why would you leave that match if you were a City fan? If you’d waited 44 years, couldn’t you wait another five minutes? Madness.

Imagine doing that at a tennis match. Andy Murray has just been broken in the final set at Wimbledon, and he’s 3-4 down. “Right, that’s it, sod the strawberries and cream, I’m off.”

Or at the Olympics as the men’s 5,000m gets underway. “Look at Farah. What’s he doing. Two laps gone and he’s already struggling at the back. Man’s a joke. I’m off.”

I’d rather fans did anything than walk away early. I’d rather they stayed and booed or whistled. They could even try and encourage their players to do better. 

But better savage abuse than cold absence.