Martin, who is a 35-year-old teacher from Merseyside, said: "I woke up and it was mad. I saw that I had a lot of Facebook messages, I thought it might have been for my birthday because it was yesterday. It's a little unbelievable and incredible.

"I went to the match with my nephew Andy and we were in the section for disabled fans, it was quite spacious. Everyone was chatting. I was chatting and singing the chants with Kyle. We had a laugh and spoke about our favourite Everton players."

He added: "I didn't think I was doing anything special but after seeing his mother's message and the impact it made, I was so humbled."

Peacock, a 37-year-old full-time career who lives in Liverpool, told BuzzFeed News, "I wasn't aware of how viral my post was. I was overwhelmed."

She said: "The main thing I want people to take away is that we need to raise awareness for people on the autism spectrum. One in four boys have mental health problems and one in four boys are autistic. They exist in society, we should be accommodating of them and treat them as equal"