Tribal battles between rivals fans in real life and on social media are nothing new... but this week saw teen heartthrob Niall Horan and his fans take on an entire club.

Following Leeds United's 2-0 win over Ipswich Town in the English Championship on Wednesday, the focus was not on the home side returning to the top of the table, but the Twitter spat between the former One Direction star and Leeds.

Derby County were also playing at the same time, with Frank Lampard’s side cruising to a stunning 4-1 away win over West Brom. Horan, a fan of the Rams, took to social media to praise his side post-game, saying Derby were “a dream to watch play.”

Leeds United’s Twitter account noticed this and replied to the singer, asking him what he thought about Marcelo Bielsa’s team.

When Horan said “no one likes Leeds”, it sparked a savage response from the West Yorkshire club (who currently have a pic of local band Kaiser Chiefs as their Twitter header image)

Following the hiatus of One Direction, Horan has pursued a unsuccessful solo career - and that was an open goal for Leeds, who fired back: “No one likes your solo career #BringBack1D.” Ouch.

It notched up 182,000 likes and 54,000 retweets within hours...

And that's when the legendary official AS Roma account joined in with some Daft Punk GIF work.

Then the gloves came off, with One Direction fans jumping in to support Horan and Leeds supporters backing their club.

A barrage of tweets followed with One Direction fans telling Leeds fans that “Niall’s solo career is better than anything y’all could ever accomplish” while fans of the Whites responded with “two wins in one night.”

But as 1D sang, you can't let Little Things Drag Me Down.

This may only finish when Central Coast Mariners step in to offer Horan a trial...