Over the past week we have called in to chat to Nopparat Kanthawong, the head coach of the Wild Boars football team, and usually found him talking tensely on the phone to parents of the boys. He went over and over the events of the day the boys went into the caves with his assistant after football practice. He says he had no idea they were going.

Tonight there was an entirely different atmosphere in the house, just below the mountains where the men who run the Wild Boars meet. They laughed, shouted cheers and shook hands in a very un-Thai way. And coach Nop was smiling for the first time, and almost speechless.

"I don’t know what to say – I just want to see them, and hug them," he told me.

I was then able to show him a note from Manchester United to the rescued boys. It was an invitation to visit Old Trafford next season, as most of the boys are passionate Man U fans. There was a little disbelief, and then elation, even from coach Nop, who admits he is a Liverpool fan who has failed to convert the rest of his team. "Is this for real?" they asked.

Getting them to UK from this far-flung border town will be a challenge. Three of the boys and coach Ekapol, who was with them in the caves, are not recognised as full Thai citizens, a fairly common problem for communities along the Thai-Myanmar border. But they just made an almost miraculous escape from a cave. They will probably make it to Manchester